Joint Watch
by UchihaUzumaki
Summary: Zombie apocalypse. Konoha it's a small walled community that works together to survive and live in peace. One day, they found two brothers, Itachi and Sasuke and convince them to join them and help. They agree, doubtful. Now, they must face the struggle to learn to fit in again, and especially for Sasuke, this is a challenge they were not ready for, but needed without knowing.
1. Logbook 1: Newcomers

**May 4th, 4pm / Scavengers Logbook**

"HQ, team 2 here, near location 25, do you copy? Over" told the tall white haired man to the radio in his hand, meanwhile, his two teammates wouldn't take theirs eyes off the strangers before them.

"This is HQ, we copy. Over" a calmed male voice answered.

" We have a little situation, Minato. " started to say the tall man. " We just met two people, two brothers, while returning from town, they only have a backpack with food, two knives, a machete and they are alone, we checked. Over. " he ended almost without blinking and passing his sight from the two men in front of him to said backpack on the floor and so on.

The other voice giggled before speaking. " This might be our lucky day, did you asked them the questions? Over. " said the man on the radio, apparently called Minato.

" I did, I think we can really trust them, but they don't seem to trust us. Over. " said, the two men in front of him were looking and the other three with straight from hell distrust and ready to flee and any given moment, if they didn't had biggers weapons than them, they'd had already.

" Isn't Sai with you? Over. " asked Minato, the white haired man rolled his eyes.

" If that would have helped I wouldn't be contacting you, genius. Over. " sighed.

Again, the man giggled. " The sarcasm was uncalled for, Kakashi. " said, still with a hint of that giggle in the voice. " Look, get me closer, I want to talk to them. Over. " said again, and the tall man, named Kakashi got a bit closer to the two brothers, the older got in front of the youngest, as a protection.

" This is one of our chiefs, he just wants to talk. " said Kakashi handing the radio to the oldest brother, he, although doubtful, did so.

" Talk. " said the older brother to the radio, pale skin, although dirty and bruised still looked white as hell, dark hair fell at both sides of his face, the rest tied in a low ponytail, piercing thin black eyes and a deep and cold voice.

" Who am I speaking to, if I may know? " the man asked, the older brother frowned a little.

" My name is Itachi, and you better tell your men to leave us the fuck alone. " the brother threatened, he didn't like strangers a bit, less when they had guns and radios.

" Okay, I think we started with the wrong foot here. " started Minato, sighing. " I'm Minato, I'm the sub"chief of a little walled town up north from where you are right now, not very far, you probably would've even reached us eventually. " he said, the older brother was getting impatient.

" I'm sorry but we already heard this crap. " hissed the older.

" Fine, Itachi, I know it's hard to trust us, okay? But we always need hands to help us get our town working, and finding trustworthy looking people like you it's really fucking hard these days. " sighed the other man. " So, believe me, if we would've wanted to hurt you, we would've already done so. " finished Minato.

Itachi, the older brother looked back at his younger brother, same skin color, almost same hair but without the ponytail, serious look, the same piercing black eyes and the same posture of "I'm not taking any of your bullshit" that his brother had. They looked at each other doubtful, the younger sighed.

" I don't know, Itachi. " he said, his voice as deep and cold as his brother.

His brother got closer to his ear and whispered.

" I think we should go with them…" his younger brother frowned immediately.

" What the fuck, Itachi? " asked the younger.

" Look, I don't trust them either, but I'm not planning on living the way we are forever, we won't last like this and I'm not planning on losing you or leaving you alone. " stated Itachi to his brother, he softened the frown, his brother had a good point. " At least they had the decency of contacting their chief. " he pointed out, his brother sighed again.

" Fine...but the moment we see any monkey business going on…" the younger continued, and his brother finished.

" We run, I know. " said Itachi and they looked back at the three men.

" What do you say? " asked the white haired man.

" We'll go with you, but we'll keep an eye out, any weird shit and you'll regret it. " threatened Itachi.

" Fine, then you can grab your bag with all your things and come with us to our vehicle, is that okay? " asked Kakashi.

The brothers looked, if they were able to keep their weapons it was better.

" Yes. " Itachi answered.

" Good, finally, let's go, it's getting dark. " said one of the two other men, brown skin and brown spiked hair, two little triangles tattooed below his eyes.

" HQ, this is team 2, we're in the car with two newcomers. Over. " said Kakashi to the radio once more.

" I said this was our lucky day. " the man called Minato giggled. " I'll be there with Shikamaru to open the gate. Over.

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 **May 4th, 6pm / Headquarters Logbook**

"This is Minato, current sub"chief of Konoha, I'm in the headquarters to interview two newcomers that team 2 found a couple of hours ago. My person and Shikamaru opened the gate for them. No incidents." the said man wrote on the top right corner of a notebook's blank page. This man was about 5'7 feet, tanned skin, messy spiky blonde hair, a nice smile on his face and a pair of narrowed blue eyes.

He was sitting in a living room in front of a sofa were two young men were seated, two brothers, almost identical to each other, if it weren't for some wrinkles here and there. Their faces said nothing much about how they were feeling, but their appearance crealy said they had been out there on their own for a very long time.

The brothers felts as if they were in a fucking dream, they were inside a house, a fucking house that's not full of those people"eater motherfuckers. They were received with water on glasses, with people not trying to steal their bags or food or weapons. They were thinking all this seemed too good to be true.

" So. " said Minato suddenly looking at the two brothers. " Tell me about yourselves. " he asked with a light smile.

" Why did you take our weapons? " Itachi, the older asked.

" It's just a security measure, guys, they are out there in the hall like the rest of the weapons, I don't have any either. " he clarified raising his hands, the brothers relaxed just a little bit. " So, tell me about yourselves. " he insisted.

" If I'm guessing right you're Minato, so you know who I am, this…" he started and looked quickly at this little brother.

" My name is Sasuke. " said his younger brother.

" Okay, Itachi and Sasuke, then. " said Minato. " How long have you been out there? " he asked.

" Long enough. " Itachi answered.

" Just the two of you? " he asked puzzled.

" Yes, we don't like new people. " answered Sasuke.

" I can see that. " he giggled a little, it was really obvious that the two brothers did not want to be there. " But I can assure you both that for now, if you stay with us, you will be safe. " he said leaning towards them. " We can get each of you into one of our departments to help, we'll give you a house, food and water. I bet you're dying to take a nice shower. " he said with a smile, the brothers looked at each other, the younger sighed, they whispered something that Minato couldn't hear quite right and they looked at him once again.

" Okay, Minato, I think we can trust you. " Itachi said, and a bigger smile appeared on the man's face.

" I can't tell you how happy I am to hear that. " he said standing up, the brothers did as well. " Now, let's show you to your house so you can rest and tomorrow morning we can give you both a little tour. " he said and the brothers nodded and followed the man out of the room, staying close to each other.

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 **May 4th, 10pm / Itachi and Sasuke logbook**

" Are we really staying, Itachi? This place gives me the creeps " asked Sasuke after they had both took a shower, dressed with some new clothes they had in there already, and sat together in the main bedroom.

They only had their backpack with spare cloth and food, their weapons were locked with all the other weapons as "security measure" apparently.

" Me too, but like I told you, Sasuke, I know it might be hard to adjust to the idea that there could actually be fucking good people left, but this looks like the real deal…" Itachi said. " And with a chance like this shoved up to our noses of feeling safe again, of better chances of protecting each other, I won't refuse it. " he explained, Sasuke sighed.

" I know, I know. " Sasuke laid on the bed with his arms stretched, Itachi stayed seated beside him. " Dammit…" he sighed again.

" At least the shower was worth it. " told Itachi letting a light smile slip through his lips.

His younger brother giggled lightly. " Hell, I'll give you that. " he said.

" How about we try to get some sleep to see what this big "tour" shit is tomorrow. " said Itachi lying on the bed as well.

" I guess there's nothing much we can do for now…" Sasuke sighed, he was everything but comfortable with the whole situation, but he had to admit that sleeping in a bed without worrying of the fucking door lock would be a bliss, so he forced himself against the pillow and actually managed to fall asleep.

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 **May 5th, 7am / Headquarters logbook**

Minato woke up, checked in with the chief and got straight to found some moral support to make the tour to the newcomers, since he couldn't really get any of the department heads for now, he was going to look for someone he knew had nothing better to do.

He went back to the house he had left earlier and went into the kitchen to find the man he was looking for having breakfast.

" Morning, Naruto. " he waved, the other man looked up with a smile.

" Morning, Dad. " he answered, Naruto was his only son, about 25 years old already, same tanned skin, spiky blonde hair, although shorter, and big rounded and expressive eyes from his mother, plus three scars at each side of his face that looked like whiskers.

" What were you planning to do now? Sleep? " Minato asked.

" Nah, I slept a little during the shift, I was planning on meeting Shikamaru, why? " Naruto shrugged, his dad smiled for some reason.

" How about, instead, you join me to give the tour to those two newcomers. " he proposed and his son's face started to sparkle.

" But of course! I never get to help with the tour. " his son answered with a big smile.

" Well, let's go, I'll wait you outside. " Minato smiled and tilted his head to the front door and exited the room, listening to the excited exclamations of his son as he went upstairs to finish dressing.

Naruto was an optimistic kind of guy, always smiling, telling jokes, helped everyone feel less stressed, less worried about everything, he could be a noisy and clumsy ass sometimes, also a bit improper, but he always meant well and tried his best to be on everyone's good side. He was one of the few people that actually believed that peace and humanity could be restored, despite everything. Some would call him a fool, but someone had to believe in it.

" I'm ready! " Minato heard his son say as he exited the house.

" Let's go then. " said Minato and they went to pick the two newcomers.

After passing two or three houses, Minato stopped.

" Here we are. " he said, they were in front of a small house, enough for about six people though. " I'll go knock on the door, wait here. " said Minato leaving his son and going straight to the door and knocking a couple of times, after a few seconds, Itachi opened the door. " Good morning. " Minato waved with a relaxed smile. " How did you spend the night? Everything okay? " he asked.

" Good morning, yes, everything was fine. " Itachi replied, still a little bit tired and doubtful about this whole thing, but he promised himself he'd try his best, for their safety's sake.

" I'm glad! Should we get going? We have a lot to cover up. " said Minato smiling.

" Sasuke, let's go. " said Itachi looking back, and his brother appeared out of the living room, his hands inside his pockets, looking even more threatening that his older brother, but he stopped there. " Sasuke… " he tried the worried and begging look so his brother would move his ass, but Sasuke just frowned a bit more. " For god's sake, Sasuke, please. " sighed Itachi and the sight of his stubborn little brother.

Sasuke seethed and moved closer to Itachi, saying no word whatsoever.

" We can go. " said Itachi looking at Minato, who had softened his smile.

" Great, come with me. " he said walking away from the house to his son. " First, I'll introduce you to someone who will be joining us for the rest of the tour, my son. " said Minato when they finally arrived to where Naruto was.

" Nice to meet you, I'm Naruto. " greeted Naruto with a smile and extending his hand to Itachi.

Naruto had to admit, the newcomers looked scary as fuck, but a bit handsome.

" Itachi. " replied the older brother shaking his hand. " This is my brother. " said Itachi making way for Naruto to see Sasuke.

" Naruto, nice to meet you. " Naruto greeted again, doing the same gesture, but Sasuke didn't moved a muscle, he just stared and the man, the hand extended in front of him and to the man's face again. For some reason he wanted to punch that smile off his face.

" Sasuke. " he replied without moving.

Tension arose a little while Naruto frowned a little and took his hand back in his pocket.

"This little bastard" he thought to himself.

" So, we should get moving, what do you say? " Minato said suddenly, they all looked at him like if he was some kind of savior, specially Naruto.

" I agree. " said Itachi, for some reason, that man, Minato, was actually looking trustworthy, to the point that some of the anxiety that was building up inside Itachi calmed down a little.

And it was passed to his little brother in form of distrust.

" So, let's go to headquarters first so you can meet our actual boss. " said Minato heading down the street with Itachi by his side and Naruto at the other, Itachi was followed closed by Sasuke.

" How did you ended up here? " Itachi asked Minato in their way to the headquarters.

" Well, my family and I, together with some of the people here actually lived in this neighborhood when it all went down, I'm an engineer and we also have an architect, so we gathered resources before it was impossible and built this walls to keep us safe, of course, it was simpler than it is now, we looked for more people to help us make this a true community, and here we are, three and a half years later. " explained Minato, Itachi was feeling whole lot more comfortable now, this man had an aura that almost demanded respect and trust.

" We have engineers, doctors, police officers, musicians, teachers, writers, lawyers, painters, farmers, hell, even pizza delivery guys, all good and hard working people. " told Minato, he was really proud of them, and the tour always gave him the chance of bragging a little bit. " Oh, we're here. " said suddenly when they reached the front of the house where the brothers had been the day before. " This is headquarters, here we held town meetings, department meetings, interview newcomers like we did with you yesterday, if any important decision needs to be made, it'll be made here, oh, and here is where our chief and her husband live. " Minato explained. " Naruto, could you go and get Tsunade for me, please?

" Sure thing. " Naruto replied and went for the door, but before he could knock it cracked open and an big as fuck old man burst out the door, scaring the man.

" Naruto, morning! Fancy seeing ya here. " said the man looking at the scared Naruto in front of him.

" God, Ero"sennin, you just scared the shit out of me. " Naruto said with a hand on his chest.

" Sorry, kid. " he laughed while looking at the house front. " Minato! Giving a little tour I see. " he said with a big smile.

" Just starting, I'm actually looking for your wife. " he said raising his voice a little.

" She'll be out in a moment, he's speaking to Obito in the living room. " explained while got closer to Minato and the others. " I'd love to chat and all, but I have to run, Kushina just asked for me immediately, and the last person I want mad at me at first thing in the morning is your wife, no offense. " laughed the man as he started walking toward the direction they came from.

" Non taken. " Minato laughed.

" I'll see you around, and welcome, kids. " said with a big smile, he waved at them and went on his way.

" I swear to god, dad, next time he scares me like that I'll punch him. " sighed Naruto getting near them again, Minato laughed.

" You couldn't even if you wanted to, son. " Naruto seethed at the comment, and the next thing they hear it's a deep female voice coming out from the house as a woman and a man exited the house.

" There she is. " said Minato.

" Confirm this with Kushina and Konan before going to Nagato, please, we need to sort out the priorities. " the woman was saying to the white haired man she was with, giving him a piece of paper. Itachi recognized him as one of the man that found them the day before, if he recalled correctly, his name was Kakashi.

" Right away. " he replied and looked at them. " Morning, Minato, you'll be taking the tour to us soon? " asked.

" In a few minutes, yes. " Minato replied.

" Great, see you later then. " said Kakashi with a pleased look on his face, and as well as the old man before, he went on his way.

" So, this are the newcomers, I assume. " said the woman while approaching them.

She had this big as fuck authority aura while she stood in front of them with her arms crossed, she wasn't too tall, her blue eyes pierced through theirs as knives, but they seemed kind at the same time. She had long blonde hair, white skin and red wine lipstick on.

" They are, miss. " Minato replied.

" Well, nice to meet you, my name is Tsunade and I run this place. " she told the two brothers. " Minato is one of the persons I trust the most in this town, and if he says you're trustworthy, you are and I will trust you. " she started. " But remember, here, everyone has a job, a responsibility, and we have our rules, disrespected them and it won't be overlooked. " she explained, Itachi and Sasuke couldn't say they weren't a bit intimidated by this woman. " Is that understood? " she asked.

Itachi saw how his brother clinched his fist in distrust, and although he too was a bit discouraged, it wasn't the time to argue.

" Understood. " he replied, Sasuke let go of his fists slowly, sighing.

" Good. " she smiled softly. " Minato, you'll bring them tonight for the assigning and all? " she asked Minato.

" Yes, 'mam. " he replied with a smile.

" Perfect, I'll see you all tonight. " she said and went back to the house, but before entering the house she spoke. " And Naruto. " she said and turned to look at Minato's son.

" Yes? " asked Naruto raising an eyebrow.

" Play nice. " she said frowning a little, the boy frowned much more.

" I always play nice! " he hissed.

" No, you don't. " she said with a smile and went into the house, Naruto seethed once more and crossed his arms against his chest.

" Let's continue. " said Minato going the other way from they had came.

They headed to the right corner and stopped there, looking at the street.

" This is where we'll spend our morning, in this street there are all our main building, hospital, supply room, gardens, everything. " he explained. " Our second stop we'll be here, the hospital. " said Minato pointing at the building at their right, they turned towards it. A big two floored white house, with a few people already inside.

Before Minato could ask his son to look for someone again a young woman stepped outside the door.

She was of average height, short light pink hair, big green eyes and wearing a doctor coat, she had a big smile in her face, shortly after going out she stepped towards them.

" Morning, Minato, Naruto! " she said when she was already in front of them.

" Morning, Sakura. " the both of them replied with a smile.

" How are you? " asked Minato. " How's everything?

" Good, there's not much going on for now, we're just checking Kiba 'cause he said he's arm still hurts a little. " she answered with a smile. Itachi thought that finally there was someone who looked genuinely nice at first sight.

" Nice work as always.

" I see you're giving the tour, should I get Konan? " Sakura asked.

" No, it's okay, I'd rather you. " he laughed, Sakura joined. " Boys, she's sub"chief of the health department, she's a doctor, trauma surgeon. " he introduced the woman.

" You make it sound like such a big deal, Minato. " she laughed. " Very nice to meet you, I'm Sakura. " she said looking at the men.

" Itachi, pleasure. " Itachi replied, sliding a very tiny smile on his lips, she indeed was the first person in a long time that gave him that safe feeling, and not just only because she was a doctor.

The girl looked at Sasuke with the same smile, he sighed.

" Sasuke. " he said, she smiled nevertheless

" Nice to meet you both, it's been a long time since we had new people, I'm glad you're here. " she said, and suddenly made an expression as though she had remember something important. " I'm so sorry, I almost forgot I have to check on supplies, Konan will kill me if I don't. It was a pleasure, guys, see you around, you two as well. " said looking first at the brothers and then two father and son.

" Bye, Sakura. " Naruto waved, so did Minato.

" Bye. " said Itachi, she smiled, waved and went back inside.

" Well, let's go. " said Minato and they continued walking. " Right beside the hospital is the supply room, here we storage food and basic supplies, the hospital safeguards the medical supplies, and the weapons are all stored next to the supply room, both guarded at all times. " he explained as they passed through the buildings. " Before we continue I want to ask you guys something, if it's not too meddlesome. " he said and stopped a little in front of them and turned back.

" What is it? " Itachi asked.

" What was your profession before? " he asked, Itachi was wondering why he hadn't asked that earlier.

" I was a lawyer, public defender actually. " he replied, Minato nodded, Itachi looked at Sasuke and gave him a little pad on the shoulder.

" Fine…" he sighed, Minato was amazed at the few times he had heard his voice. " I was a municipal officer. " he replied, Naruto's eyes widened, Minato giggled.

" Did you hear that, Naruto, municipal officer. " said Minato with a smile, Sasuke couldn't help but raise an eyebrow, Naruto had his eyes fixed on him.

" Fuck, we sure could use an officer with us. " sighed Naruto crossing his arms on his chest.

" With you? " asked Sasuke frowning.

" I'm part of the security and vigilance department. " Naruto answered with pride.

" So you're an officer too? " Itachi asked, curious.

" No, but I'm a good learner and I had a great teacher that is. " he replied with the same smile.

Sasuke seethed ironically, amused. " Of course. " that managed to make Naruto frown.

" Sasuke… " Itachi reprimanded him.

" What's that suppose to mean, asshole? " said Naruto.

" Naruto! " now it was Minato who was reprimanded his son.

Sasuke frowned, the two men looked at each other with disgust and anger.

" Guys, let's relax a little, okay? " said Minato putting a hand in Naruto's shoulder, he relaxed his frown, but didn't take his eyes from Sasuke, he was not liking him a bit.

" Sasuke…" Itachi said again, his brother looked up to him, only to find a look of reprimand he knew too damn well, and he was not going to defy it.

" Fine…" Sasuke seethed and looked away.

Naruto also seethed and back away.

" Now, let's continue…" Minato sighed, as well as Itachi.

Itachi had the weird feeling that Minato and him could actually become friends, he saw some of himself in him, as weird as that sounds.

" Now, let's stop at the equipment, I need you to know someone. " he said getting close to the second building after the hospital, supposedly it was the equipment and weapons storage.

" Obito, Kakashi, is any of you there? " asked Minato raising his voice just a little.

" Kakashi. " answered the man stepping out of the house. Itachi and Sasuke saw again that white haired man, this time it was actually smiling.

" Finally, I was beginning to wonder if you were coming or not. " he said approaching them.

" Guys, I know you met him earlier, but he is the sub"chief of the supply department. " Minato introduced him.

" Or as I like to call us, the scavengers. " said Kakashi with a smile, and they had to admit it, it was clever, or at least to Itachi, it even got a smile out of him. " You do smile! " he exclaimed, and the smile was gone. " Anyway, nice to meet you both again. " he said extending a hand to Itachi, he shook it.

" Pleasure. " said Itachi, Sasuke just nodded. " What do you do exactly? " he asked Kakashi.

" We guard the supplies, food, weapons, everything, except the hospital's of course, and we go out to get them if we're running short. " he replied. " And sometimes, if we're lucky, recruit people. " he added.

" I understand. " said Itachi.

" If you're interested we always need help. " said Kakashi with a little sigh.

Itachi looked puzzled, but nodded. " I'll have that in mind.

" Shall we continue? " asked Minato. " We just have one more stop and I'll let you free. " said Minato with a smile.

" Sure. " said Itachi.

" See you around, guys. " said Kakashi returning to the house.

They walked a little farther and they didn't see houses but two green slots at both sides of the streets filled with plantations, it looked like all sorts of vegetables, legumes and tubers.

" A little joint to the supply department, the gardens. " he said pointing at one of the slots, the only that had people, there were about three people. " And you're in luck, the chief is here.

" Mom! " Naruto screamed, getting the attention of a tall woman, beige dress, green apron, really long straight red hair and big green eyes, she smiled as she approached.

" Hello guys, making your last stop I see. " she said.

" Guys, this is the chief of the gardens and my wife. " he said.

" Nice to meet you, my name is Kushina. " said the woman with a smile.

" Itachi, a pleasure. " he said.

" Sasuke. " the younger brother added.

" If you're interested, although you guess what we do, we take care of the plantations, we also are breeding cattle to have eggs. " she explained. " We can always use help.

" Thanks. " Itachi said.

" Well, I have to get back to work. " she said. " It was nice meeting you both, welcome to Konoha. " she said, and it was the first person who actually said the name of the village, Itachi had seen it at the entrance but no one had mentioned it before.

" Thank you. " Itachi replied.

The woman said goodbye to his husband and son and went back to work.

" Well, this was it. " Minato said. " I hope we made your expectations. " he giggled. " Before I go there's one last thing, our general rules. " he began. " It's really simple, first, respect everyone, we all want to survive and live in peace; second, don't ever do anything important without consulting someone, especially a superior; third, unless you're on patrol or guard shift you must never carry weapons with you; fourth, don't open the gates or go out unless you're told to; fifth, if you see something odd or wrong, tell someone from the headquarters or someone at patrol or guard shift immediately. " Minato recited. " Understood?

" Yes. " said Itachi.

" Well, I'll get to work soon, so I must leave you, feel free to do whatever you want, the only thing is I need you to be at headquarters at 6 o'clock to give you an official welcome and decide your jobs, okay? " he asked.

" Understood. " Itachi replied.

" You're going to Shikamaru's, Naruto? " Minato asked his son.

" Right away, see you later. " waved Naruto at the three of them and went straight down the street.

Sasuke wanted to go return to the house and stay there, but Itachi actually felt like walking around a little bit, so they agreed on meeting in a couple of hours back at the house.

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 **May 5th, 4pm / Itachi and Sasuke logbook**

" It's already 4 o'clock, where the fuck is that idiot? " Sasuke sighed looking at his watch.

Sasuke stayed in the house, seated in the living room's couch reading a crappy book he grabbed from the house, he really didn't feel like walking around meeting people, he admitted that the place was awfully well organized and structured, but it didn't stop freaking the fuck out of him, the whole world was so gone to shit that there was no way in hell people like this truly existed, there had to be more to it, there had to be something hidden, something they weren't telling them.

He thank all the gods no one had the brilliant idea to stop by and say hello, he would've closed the door right in their faces, or better, he wouldn't have even opened the damn door.

And finally the door cracked open, making him to jump just a little bit.

" So you finally arrive. " said Sasuke approaching the entrance.

" Sorry, brother, there's actually a lot to see for such a small thing. " said his brother with a smile on his face, Sasuke frowned at the sight of that.

" What the fuck are you smiling for? " he asked shocked, his brother's smile was gone quickly and a frown appeared.

" Believe it or not, Sasuke, this shit it's not so bad. " sentenced Itachi, calmed but keeping the frown, his younger brother just made his worse. " You'd know it if you had joined me.

" I'm sorry I'm not as easy"going as you are, big brother, this place still creeps the fuck out of me, I don't like it. " Sasuke said, raising his voice just a little.

" Give it a chance, will you? Would that be so bad? " his brother asked, Sasuke seethed again and went to the living room to pace around.

" What the fuck happened to our rule, Itachi? " asked Sasuke stopping in the middle of the room to look at this brother. " How come you're trusting them so quickly? Did you forget last time? " asked with his voice a little bit more raised.

" Of course not! " Itachi replied, frustrated. " Last time we didn't even get the chance of a hello when they were already putting a knife to our throats. " he said raising the level of his voice as well. " They are different, I just came from the weapons supply, the man there even showed me where our weapons are, they don't hide things. " he slowly returned to his normal voice level. " We can't ruin our perhaps only chance to survive, Sasuke, I don't want to go back out there. " he sighed sitting on the couch. " I remember our rule, okay? But you seem to have forgotten the promise we made after mom and dad. " Itachi said with a sad looking face, his voice even trembled a little, Sasuke looked down frowning and clinched his fists.

" I haven't... " Sasuke whispered looking at his brother.

" What was it then? " Itachi asked.

" Stick together, protect each other, survive together. " said Sasuke letting his fists go and sitting on the chair in front of the sofa. " I know…" he sighed. " You're such a fucking pain in the ass.

None of them said anything for a couple of seconds.

" So, do we give this place a chance or not? " asked Itachi, Sasuke looked at him again.

" Why the hell not. " sighed Sasuke standing up.

" That's the spirit, little brother. " Itachi giggled and followed him.

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 **May 5th, 8pm / Headquarters logbook**

" So, you're sure about these two. " said Tsunade quietly, the celebration and assignation was over, now she wanted a private word with her closer circle. On the table there were Minato, Kakashi, Shikamaru and Obito.

" I am, 'mam. " Minato replied. " I know they seem a bit off right now, they've been out there for too long, it'll be hard for them to adjust, but when they do…" said, he didn't even needed to finish the sentence, Tsunade nodded immediately.

" I know, Minato. " she said.

" It'll be good to have someone who's been out there recently as well, our last newcomers have already been here a year, it'd be nice to have some new perspective. " said Kakashi.

" I agree. " said Shikamaru, a light tanned skin man with a spiky and tall ponytail, small but observing eyes and a sharp mind. " The older brother already looks determined to help, not so sure about the other though. " finished.

" Yes, I sense that as well. " said Tsunade.

" Yeah, he...apparently he has worst trust issues than his brother, but I think he'll get over them, we'll help him to. " said Minato.

" Always so optimistic when it comes to people, Minato. " sighed Tsunade. " But I believe that as well, they just need time.

" Also, Shikamaru, since Sasuke it's going to be part of the security department, there's something you and Nagato should now. " started Minato. " Naruto joined me on the tour this morning, he and Sasuke had two little...how do I say this...episodes of tension... " said, Shikamaru raised an eyebrow.

" Good thing I told Naruto to play nice. " sighed Tsunade.

" Something tells me you're not telling me this to keep them apart. " Shikamaru sighed, keeping his eyebrow raised.

" Exactly, I need you to do the complete opposite. " Minato smiled.

" You love making me suffer, don't you? " Shikamaru complained. " I get your point though.

" Good. " he giggled.

" Obito, Shikamaru, I expect some reports tomorrow night about Itachi and Sasuke's development on their first day and how are you gonna handle them, understood? " said Tsunade.

" Yes. " Obito and Shikamaru replied at the same time.

" That's what I love to hear, now, off to bed, tomorrow is a big day. " said Tsunade getting up, everyone did as well. " Good night everyone. " she finished.

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 **May 6th, 7am / Vigilance and security logbook**

" Now that everyone's here, I'd like to begin by officially welcoming our new member, Sasuke. " said Nagato, a tall pale man with dark red hair and strange looking eyes, if everyone was honest, he was a little scary. " And Sasuke, let me introduce you to all the permanent vigilance members, Shikamaru, our sub"chief, Asuma, supply room, and the rest, you already now Naruto, Gaara, Temari, Lee, Ten Ten, Neji, Sai, Deidara and Kisame. " said Nagato pointing at each person. " I hope we can work together just fine. " he said.

Sasuke looked at the crowd, sighed, and looked up again. " Me too, nice to meet you. " said Sasuke, resigned to make little efforts to start and adjust. The sort of things he did for his brother, such a pain, he thought to himself.

" Now, you've come in a good time, Sasuke, we are just going to arrange new shifts. " Nagato sai. " Oh, but, the night shift will stay almost the same though, I'm sorry guys, you know we need the more experienced. " Sasuke saw how a couple of them sighed and seethed in disappointment, he amazed himself at his own thought that he would actually like the night shift.

" Okay, Shikamaru, please read the shifts. " said Nagato looking at Shikamaru who had a paper in his hands.

Shikamaru sighed and started to read.

" Morning shift, 6am to 12pm. " read. " Gate 1, Deidara; Gate 2, Hinata; Gate 3, Chouji; Gate 4, Jiraiya; Supply room, Asuma. " Shikamaru read, Sasuke was intrigued that almost all the people he named weren't in the room, but he figured they were just volunteers and not formal members of the department. " Afternoon shift, 12pm to 7pm. " he continued. " Gate 1, Kisame; Gate 2, Kiba, Sasori as a replacement; Gate 3…" he stopped and looked at Nagato. " Is this correct, Nagato? " Shikamaru asked.

" Yes, Kakashi just confirmed it. " Nagato nodded, Shikamaru limited himself to shrug his shoulders.

" Gate 3, Itachi, Minato as a replacement. " Sasuke looked up directly to Shikamaru, his brother had volunteered to watch? " Gate 4, Ten Ten; Supply room, myself. " he finished. " Next, the night shift, we all knew this was coming. " sighed. " Well, almost everyone has their usual partners. " Shikamaru giggled.

"Partners?", thought Sasuke.

" The night shift is long and tyring, there must be two people to make it work. " clarified Nagato when, somehow, almost read Sasuke's mind, he looked up to him and nodded. Made a lot of sense. " Continue, Shikamaru.

" Yes. " he said. " Night shift, 7pm to 6am. " he stopped, sighed and looked at Nagato again, for some reason Sasuke figured he made the night shift. " Once again, are you sure about this? " Shikamaru asked Nagato.

" Yes, I am. " Nagato answered, Shikamaru sighed.

" Gate 1. " took a deep breath. " Naruto and Sasuke. " a big gasp was heard from everyone, and Naruto and Sasuke stood right away.

" But, Nagato, Asuma and I have been shift partners since… " Naruto started to complain but Nagato interrupted him.

" The decision is taken, Naruto. " said Nagato. " Besides, I'm personally giving you the task of teaching him how we work. " explained, Naruto sighed.

Sasuke was not happy, not even a bit, he wanted the night shift, yes he did, but he hadn't liked that guy a bit the day before during the tour, and having to spend hours with him didn't excited him at all. He wanted to complain, but how could he demand being a newcomer?

This was hell.

" Fuck, okay. " said Naruto frowning, he and Sasuke looked at each other, both seethed, and sat back again.

Yeah, this was not going to be fun.

" Fine, now that that's done…" said Shikamaru. " Gate 2, Gaara and Temari; Gate 3, Lee and Neji; Gate 4, Myself and Asuma; Supply room, Nagato and Konan. " finished Shikamaru putting the paper away.

" Thank you. " said Nagato. " Now, Deidara, we've already informed the other members of the morning shift, please go look for them immediately and start. " he ordered, a tanned skin, long straight blonde hair guy stood up, nodded and left. " Ten Ten, Kisame, same with you, start the morning patrol. " he ordered again, and a short black haired woman with braids and a tall almost blue colored skin big guy stood up, nodded and left. " As for the night shift, you can go and rest, do any other work if you're supposed to, for now, that'll be all. " said and everyone stood up. " And Naruto, take the morning or afternoon to start the lessons. " sentenced, Naruto and Sasuke sighed. " You're dismissed. " said and everyone left the room except for the chiefs.

" Hey, good luck. " said Gaara, a white as snow skin guy, redhead, blue eyes and with the most terrible dark circles in the world. But a genuine nice guy and a great friend of Naruto.

" Thanks. " Naruto sighed with a little smile.

They said goodbye and Naruto looked back just to find Sasuke in front of him, both frowned.

" Look, I'm not happy about this either, I did not asked for this. " started Naruto before Sasuke said anything. " But we'll have to work through it somehow, let's start again. " said Naruto biting his tongue, he was making the effort of his life to be nice. " Nice to meet you, Sasuke. " said, relaxing the frown a little, the other did as well, looking back and forth at the hand and Naruto, sighed.

" What the hell…" sighed. " Nice to meet you, Sasuke. " both shook hands for a couple of seconds.

" Now, I'll give you two choices, either I start telling you about how everything works now, or we take the day to ourselves and I give the briefing during the shift. Pick. " said Naruto, he had other things to do and didn't want to spend the day with Sasuke if he was going to spend the night with him anyway.

" I'm already going to spend the entire night with you, I rather have the day to myself. " sighed Sasuke crossing his arms, Naruto frowned again.

" Well, in that we agree. " said Naruto, apparently, when it comes to not being in the same space, they will agree on everything. " Gate 1 is that one by the entrance, we'll meet at the weapons supply room at 6.50, don't be late. " said Naruto, Sasuke frowned a little bit more.

" Fine. " he said.

Naruto nodded, keeping the frown, they looked at each other for a minute, this was not going to be fun…

Finally, they parted separated ways to do their own stuff. Pissed as fuck.

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 **May 6th, 2pm / Naruto logbook**

" What's with the long face, Naruto? " Sakura, his best friend asked him while they sat by the park to eat lunch together, this was an usual thing, especially on wednesdays.

" I have a new partner for the night shift. " he sighed, Sakura gasped.

" What? Who is it now? Is it Neji? " she asked, worried, she knew Naruto had a bit of a hard time standing him.

" Nah, I can handle Neji, it's actually worst…" Naruto said, Sakura looked surprised. " I got the new guy, Sasuke. " he said with a very unpleasant look.

" Newcomer and already in the night shift? What is Nagato thinking? " she asked.

" I don't know, but I think it's because he was a fucking police officer, so he really doesn't have to be trained or anything. " explained. " Nagato also told me that he wanted me to teach him how we work and all that bullshit. " seethed. " I don't think I can stand him the entire shift...he looks like an asshole.

" You don't know him yet, Naruto. " said Sakura. " You might get along.

" This is my father's fault, I'm sure of it. " Naruto said, not believing a word that Sakura said.

Sakura giggled.

" Maybe, you know how he loves putting people that hate each other in the same team, that's why I spent those two damn months with Sasori on the same shift. " she said, Naruto laughed.

" You're right, but you still can't stand him. " he said with a smile.

" It's still better than before. " she clarified shrugging. " You'll be alright. " she assured him with a pad on the back. " Also, I don't know how Sasuke is, but if he's a bit like his brother, you'll definitely get along. " she said with quite a smile.

" Why do you say that? " he asked, that smile was not quite normal in her when talking about a stranger.

" Well, he passed by the hospital this morning, checking if the hospital needed anything, you know, now that he's with the scavengers and all. " Naruto nodded. " And we actually ended up talking more than I expected. " Naruto looked surprised, the smile that was forming in his friend's face was, for sure, not an usual one. " He's really nice, I even saw him smile, and laugh like a normal person. " she finished. " Also very handsome. " added, and Naruto then realised.

" You like him… " he said surprised, Sakura immediately blushed.

" What are you saying, Naruto?! I've only met him twice! " giggled, blushing a bit more.

" You're blushing. " he told her smiling, she looked away.

" Fine, I enjoyed talking to him, he's nice, okay? Sue me. " she said with a smile, her blushing was fading.

Naruto just laughed at her friends reaction.

" It's okay, Sakura. " he said. " I also got that vibe from him, the complete opposite from Sasuke. " sighed.

" I really hope the shift doesn't go that bad though. " she said, patting him again in the back.

" Same here.

They continued talking about something else and finished eating.

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 **May 6th, 3pm / Sasuke logbook**

He spent the morning trying to get to talk to his brother, but apparently he was busy as fuck, so when it was finally noon he actually new where he could find his brother and have a calm conversation.

Gate 3.

" Itachi. " he called his brother while he climbed the stairs to the gate.

" Sasuke, what are you doing here? " he asked when Sasuke climbed up and sat in front of him. The gate was low, so you had to be seated to feet in it, but you could see the whole town as well as miles beyond the walls.

" I wanted to talk, mr. I'm so busy I can't meet with my brother, may I? " Sasuke asked, a little pissed off.

Itachi sighed. " What is it, Sasuke? " he asked.

" I've been assigned the night shift. " he told, Itachi looked surprised.

" Really? Kakashi was telling me this morning that the night shift was only for people that had been here for long time, how the hell? " Itachi asked.

" I don't have the slightest clue. " said Sasuke. " Maybe it's because I'm an officer and they wanted that guy to train me or something, like I needed it. " Sasuke hissed.

" The police thing must have influenced, you are right. " Itachi said. " Wait, with who?

" That annoying son of the sub"chief, Naruto. " Sasuke answered frowning.

" Figures. " Itachi sighed. " Well, then you must make an effort to get along, little brother. " said Itachi with a smile.

" The only effort I'm going to make is to control myself from throwing him off the gate. " Sasuke hissed, again, Itachi crossed his arms.

" Sasuke, the chance it's not only to the place, to people as well. " said his brother, Sasuke knew he wasn't going to get much moral support.

" Too soon to agree to that. " said Sasuke crossing his arms too.

Itachi giggled. " I'll take that. " he said. " You know, I passed by the hospital earlier in the morning. " he said suddenly.

" So? " Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

" Kakashi sent me to ask if they needed anything, and I ended up having a quite long conversation with the sub"chief, Sakura, do you remember her? " his brother told, Sasuke's eyebrow raised even more, if that was possible.

" Well...yes, pink hair, what about her? " Sasuke said, it was almost impossible to not remember someone with pink hair.

" No, not much, she's just actually really nice. " said Itachi, Sasuke didn't like where this was heading, Sasuke lowered his eyebrow and looked at this brother narrowing his eyes.

" Okay? " said Sasuke, puzzled.

Itachi turned to his little brother and laughed, turned back to outside the town and kept smiling.

" You fucking like her. " said Sasuke, amazed by his success in reading Itachi so fast.

Itachi seethed, but kept smiling.

" Well, yes, of course I liked her, first person that actually talks about something that's not work related in this place. " Itachi said, removing his smile slowly. " She also enjoys mystery novels, so we got caught up on that. " explained Itachi.

" Amazing…" sighed Sasuke shaking his head. " You know what? I'm out, I need a nap. " said Sasuke, and starting heading down the stairs, Itachi smiled again.

" I'll see you in the morning. " said Itachi before he reached the floor.

" Yeah. " answered Sasuke, finally getting to the floor.

Fuck. Damn. Shit.

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 **May 6th, 6.50pm / Weapons supply room logbook.**

" You're here. " Sasuke heard Naruto's voice at his back and turned immediately.

" Where else would I be? " said Sasuke raising an eyebrow, Naruto took a deep breath.

" Let's just go get our guns already… " Naruto sighed and went inside the house, followed by Sasuke who was rolling his eyes.

" Hi there. " said Nagato the moment they both entered the room. There was also a woman almost his same height, pale, dark blue hair, short, a lot of eyeliner and a serious look on his face. " See you've come from your guns. " he said going to the wall, full of guns.

Sasuke was impressed, they were armed to the teeth, he bet you could name almost any kind of gun and they'd have it. That was both reassuring and scary.

" Here, I fixed your rifle's silencer by the way. " said Nagato giving a nice sniper rifle to Naruto.

" Geez, finally, thank you. " thanked Naruto with a smile and hanging the gun to his shoulder.

" And Sasuke, this one's yours. " said Nagato handling him another sniper rifle. He took it. " Know how to use it I suppose. " asked.

" Yes. " he replied and hung it on his shoulders as well.

" Well, off you go. Good luck. " said Nagato and the two exited the house.

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 **May 6th, 6.58pm / Vigilance night shift. Gate 1. Logbook / Naruto and Sasuke**

Naruto and Sasuke said nothing while they waited Kisame to get down from the gate so they could go up and start their shift from hell.

" Good luck, kid. " said Kisame when he reached the floor, patting Naruto on the shoulder.

" Good job, Kisame. " said Naruto, the other man waved and went on his way. " Well...let's go. " said Naruto, Sasuke seethed and started climbing, Naruto followed him with a frown.

" You know, you could've waited to see if I offered to go last. " Naruto seethed when they both were inside the gate, Naruto sat on the right side, Sasuke on the other, facing each other.

Sasuke said nothing, rather, started looking outside the walls without paying any attention to Naruto.

"Don't throw him off the gate, don't throw him off the gate" Naruto repeated himself over and over while taking deep breaths.

" Look, I don't want to be trapped here with you either, okay? " said Naruto, trying not to sound as pissed off as he was. " But if I don't tell you what Nagato told me to he'll kill me, so spare me the cold attitude for a minute and pay attention. " he said, frowning, Sasuke looked at him with the same look on his face.

" Whatever, just tell me. " sighed Sasuke.

" First, the shifts, while the morning shift is guarding, the afternoon shift patrols the streets, and vice versa, but during the night shift, since we are two, we guard inside and outside, no one patrols. " he explained. " Second, as you may figure, when we start the shift, as you saw, we go and pick the weapon, when we finish we go and leave it there. Third, here. " said and handled a radio to Sasuke, he took it. " All permanent members of the vigilance department must have one, all the chiefs have one, and some of the members of the scavengers will too, something happens, anything, we report it. Although, during the shift, unless one of leaves the gate, we only keep one on, too much noise otherwise, your's off. " he explained showing his radio, Sasuke looked at his for a moment. " Channel 2, by the way. " he said, and suddenly Naruto's radio sounded.

" _Two down on gate 4._ " said Shikamaru.

" Nice. " said Naruto to the radio.

" You report every time you kill one? " Sasuke asked, intrigued.

" Well, we have to keep ourselves busy with something, right? " shrugged Naruto, Sasuke didn't say anything else.

And suddenly, they heard something stepping through the woods.

" Speaking of the devil…" said Naruto pointing outside, Sasuke looked and there was effectively one of those things outside, Naruto shot him in the head at once. " One down on gate 1. " he spoke to the radio.

A couple of seconds passed.

" _Nice._ " said a voice Sasuke did not quite recognized.

" Thanks, Lee. " said Naruto smiling.

"Oh, right, the one with the big eyebrows", said Sasuke in his head.

" So, where was I? " asked Naruto for himself before continuing speaking.

" About to shut the fuck up, I'd hope. " said Sasuke before Naruto could say anything.

" I'm not done. " Naruto seethed frowning all the way.

" Well but I am, dumbass. " Sasuke hissed.

" What the fuck did you just called me, asshole? " asked Naruto keeping the frown.

" Dumbass. " Sasuke repeated.

" What the fuck is wrong with you? " Naruto hissed.

Naruto was really close to losing his shit when the radio sounded again.

" _Gate 4 to gate 1, do you copy?._ " said the other man at the radio.

Naruto grabbed the radio. " Asuma, you're a life safer, something happened? " Naruto asked without taking his eyes off Sasuke, who was now looking into the forest.

" _Not really, just wanted to see how my former partner was doing._ " said Asuma through the radio. " _And to tell you to remember what I've taught you._ " he added.

" I'm doing okay, I know, I know. " sighed Naruto, didn't know how Asuma knew he actually needed those words, but he was glad he did. " Thanks.

" _Keep on the good work, kid._ " finished Asuma.

Naruto took a deep breath and look down to the village.

Hours passed without much, actually, without nothing, Sasuke and Naruto didn't spoke a word to each other after that. Sasuke killed one, his first, but nothing was said apart from the "One down on gate 1" on the radio.

But suddenly, some time around 1 am.

" Hey, dumbass. " said Sasuke without warning, his eyes fixed outside, Naruto, who was still looking down on the village turned back with his eyebrows already in a frown. " Do you see that? " Naruto's frown softened and approach the opening of the gate to look better at the woods.

" Yeah. " Naruto replied. " What the fuck?

" More of them? " Sasuke suggested.

" They're not moving slow enough. " said Naruto. " Fuck…" he whispered and took his radio. " Here gate 1, do you copy? " he said.

" _Here gate 2, something happened?_ " said the only woman on the night shift, Temari, a true badass.

" Not sure, we're seeing some strange movement between the woods, but we can't tell if they're more of those bastards or worse. " said Naruto.

" _Do you think it could be people, Naruto?_ " asked Lee.

" I don't know. " sighed Naruto.

" Whatever it is, it's going away. " said Sasuke suddenly.

" It is…" said. " Well, it looks like it's going away, whatever the hell it was. " informed Naruto on the radio. " Anyway, you should all keep a look out, guys. " added.

" _Of course._ " replied everyone.

Surprisingly, the rest of the shift, or at least up until 4am everything was going normal.

Naruto was bored as hell, at least with Asuma they'd tell jokes, play chess, sing songs, anything to keep each other awake and alert, but this fucking silence was going to drive him crazy.

" _Guys, Gate 3 here._ " said the voice of Lee suddenly. " _Did you hear about the new zombie comic book?_ " asked Lee, Naruto started laughing, he was beginning to wonder where was Lee and his bad zombie jokes.

" _Lee, I can't do this every night._ " sighed Shikamaru on the radio. Naruto couldn't stop laughing.

Sasuke, on the other hand, had an eyebrow raised to the heavens.

"What the fuck, shouldn't we be more serious about this shit?", thought to himself watching Naruto laugh his ass off with the corner of his eyes.

" No, Lee, I didn't hear. " said Naruto between laughs.

" _Naruto, no, please, do not encourage him, you always do this._ " Temari sighed.

Sasuke didn't understood, everyone was asking for him to shut up, but at the same time you could tell they were smiling or laughing. Plus, how do you act like that during such an important shift?

" _Come on, kid, just tell us already._ " said Asuma, giggling a little.

" _You only live once…_ " said Lee, there was a pause, even Naruto stopped laughing. " _...it's full of irony._ " and there was the punchline, Naruto bursted in laughter again.

" Good one, Lee. " said Naruto on the radio while he tried to stop laughing.

" _Dammit, Lee._ " sighed Shikamaru, but a hint of a giggled slipped in his voice.

" _Okay, I'll admit it, I laughed._ " said suddenly Gaara, who usually never laughed at Lee's jokes.

" _Lee, you just made Gaara laughed on the first week of the month._ " said Shikamaru impressed.

" That's a whole new record. " laughed Naruto, several laughs were heard on the radio, including a "thank you, thank you" from Lee.

Naruto saw not one little smile from Sasuke, that was disappointing, and discouraging even, because if he couldn't laugh at a joke that even Gaara himself had laughed at, he was hopeless.

From that moment on, all the way until 6am, three more fucking hours, none of them spoke. None of them did nothing, really, they didn't even looked at each other. Naruto knew that the moment he spoke, the other would probably reply with some smartass comment, so he wanted to spare himself the trouble.

Sasuke, on the other hand, wasn't interested in knowing the guy, he knew that the moment he started asking or saying anything Naruto wouldn't stop talking and he wouldn't be able to control himself from throwing him off the gate. He was better off silent, a rock.

And finally, the shift ended, so they got down the gate without doubt. And again, without saying any word to each other they made their way to the supply room.

" Naruto! " he heard Asuma calling to him.

" Asuma, Shikamaru. " he said stopping, Sasuke continued his way.

" How was it? " Shikamaru asked pointing at Sasuke, who was already at the supply room.

" I...don't really want to talk about it, I need to sleep. " sighed Naruto, he didn't had the strength to complain about his shift. " Maybe later. " added.

" Can imagine. " sighed Shikamaru while they started walking towards the supply room together.

They delivered their weapons and went home to sleep.

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 **May 7th, 6.30 am / Itachi logbook**

He was having breakfast on the kitchen, when suddenly Sasuke entered.

" Good morning, how was the shift? " he asked, but his brother kept walking.

" Shut up. " he said quickly and went upstairs to sleep, he assumed.

" Good talk! " he said raising his voice so he could here him.

" Fuck off! " Sasuke replied from before closing the door to his bedroom.

" That bad, uh? " he sighed, finished eating and went to the supply room right away.

" Good morning, Kakashi. " he said upon arrival, Kakashi, for the time being, was the only one there.

" Morning, Itachi. " he replied. " How's your brother? " he asked.

" Well, considering that he told me to fuck off and went straight to sleep, I'd say he's okay. " Itachi replied with a little smile, Kakashi giggled. " So, what can I do? " he asked.

" Well, you can take this to Sakura, she said she needed them, right? " said Kakashi giving him a bag with clean towels and pillow covers. " Also, this seeds for Kushina, she asked for them yesterday. " added handing a little bag of seeds. " After you do that please come back, we'll have a little meeting, please. " finished.

" Of course. " he replied, and a part of him got excited to visit the young Sakura again if it were only for a moment. How the fuck was he so comfortable so quickly? He didn't know, but for some reason, he didn't care at all, it had been a long time since he hadn't felt that.

He headed straight for the hospital, waving to one of his new teammate on the scavengers on the way, Sai, a pale skin and dark haired young man, same age as Sasuke, and almost same personality, but nicer and happier.

Went he got to the hospital it was surprisingly empty, so he knocked on the door.

" Somebody home? " he called out.

" Yes, I'll be right there. " Sakura's voice replied from the next room that if Itachi remembered correctly it was the office.

After a few seconds Sakura was outside, smiling.

" Itachi! " she said approaching. " How are you? " she asked.

" Good. " he replied with a little smile, but Sakura narrowed her eyes, and tilting her head a little. " What is it? " he asked puzzled.

" You sure? " she asked with a light smile, she seemed worried, like she had read his mind. How was she able to do that? Even Sasuke couldn't do that at times, he couldn't help himself from looking surprised.

" Well, I'm still trying to get use to wake up in a bed but, I'm okay, I'm feeling comfortable. " he replied, she smiled.

" Glad to hear that. " she replied, lowered her eyes for a moment and widened her eyes. " Are those my towels? " she asked, Itachi snapped out of his mind and remember he had to deliver that.

" Yes, they are, almost forgot. " he said surprised. " Where do I put them? " he asked.

" Right there in the office is okay, thank you so much. " she said pointing at the office desk.

" You're welcome. " he replied after putting the bag down.

" Oh, Itachi, are you busy? " she asked suddenly.

" Actually, yes, a bit, why? " he asked.

" Nothing, I just happened to finish that book you recommended me yesterday. " she said, Itachi's eyes widened, it wasn't a long book but still, damn that was fast, she giggled at his expression. " It was so exciting that if I had stopped it wouldn't had let me sleep. " she giggled, he smile a little, he had to say it, she wasn't just nice, she was cute.

" Well, how about we meet for lunch before my shift and talk about it? " he asked, and a little blush appeared on her cheeks, even he could feel a little warm on his.

" Sure, do we meet here? " she asked.

" Sure, at 11.30 is okay, right? " he asked.

" Yes. " she replied.

" Okay, see you later then. " said Itachi, his heart had started racing suddenly.

" See you. " she waved smiling and Itachi left the house.

"Did I just…?" Itachi thought. "...nah", he shook his head and continued to the gardens.

 **xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

 **May 7th, 7pm / Vigilance night shift. Gate 1. Logbook / Naruto and Sasuke**

Naruto and Sasuke started climbing to the gate as soon as Kisame went down. They didn't even said hello to each other when they met at the weapons supply room.

This shift didn't look like it was going to be anyway better than last night.

But Naruto wanted to talk, not to get to know him, oh no. He spoke to Sakura at lunch, which she wasn't having because she had already ate with Sasuke's brother, by the way, and it turns out she seems to be starting to like Itachi, and if he was going to let that happen, he'd have to know a little more about him, and if that meant interrogating Sasuke, he'd do it.

For the first hour none of them said nothing, not even on the radio, not even zombies had appeared on the gates, nothing at all.

So Naruto saw his chance.

" Say, asshole. " he started, turning his face at Sasuke, he turned back at him frowning.

" What do you want? " asked, pissed off already.

" What kind of person is your brother? " he asked, straightforward, Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

" Why? " Sasuke asked.

" I just want to know. " he shrugged, but Sasuke's eyebrow rose higher.

And suddenly, it lowered and a smirk appeared on Sasuke's face, the first smile he saw on Sasuke's face and he wanted to punch it, at 100kms per hour, with a chair.

" Do you like him? " Sasuke asked smirking, Naruto frowned.

Sasuke wasn't planning on saying anything, but for some illogical reason he thought annoying him was a better idea. He had to entertain himself in someway, that's what Itachi had suggested, he didn't specified it had to be a nice way of having fun.

" No. " Naruto replied sighing. " But Sakura seems to do so, and if I'm gonna let that slip through my face I want to make sure she doesn't get hurt. " Naruto said, Sasuke smirk disappeared a little.

" So you like Sakura. " Naruto frowned even more.

" Either. " he said, and it was true, whether Sasuke believed him or not. " She's like my sister. " he added. " So, are you gonna tell me? " he insisted, Sasuke's raised eyebrow came back, sighed and looked away to the forest.

" Here's the thing, dobe. " he said calmly, crossing his arms, Naruto deepened his frown, if that was possible " Itachi it's a fucking mystery, not even I can tell what he's thinking sometimes, but I can tell you he's not an asshole, he actually can be one of the nicest persons you'll meet. " Sasuke explained.

Naruto relaxed a little, but smirked.

" I see, so that's why you're such a moron, to balance things. " he smirked and giggling a little bit, Sasuke turned immediately, frowning. " Ha, not so calm now, are you? " Naruto smirked.

Sasuke took an incredibly deep breath, closed his eyes and opened them to reply.

" You don't know me. " said Sasuke frowning slightly, in a deeper colder voice and saying every word slowly, threatening even.

" Flash news, moron, you're not letting me. " said Naruto crossing his arms, Sasuke frown, amazingly, relaxed a little. " I remind you we're gonna be trapped here together every night for a month, so you better stop the cold shoulder bullshit or this will be harder than it has to be. " sentenced Naruto, Sasuke looked down seething, and upset, looked away to the forest.

For a few seconds he didn't change his expression, if something, he looked uneasy and thoughtful, Naruto wondered if he was going to say something or not, what the hell was he thinking.

" _One down on gate 3._ " said Gaara's voice suddenly on the radio.

" _Good job._ " said Shikamaru in response.

Sasuke looked at the radio quickly, back to the forest, and sighed, relaxing.

Naruto had to say something, he had to. It's not like he wanted to be friends with him or anything, but Sakura told him that he should make the effort to get to know him, Itachi had told her that Sasuke was a bit hard to get, but when you got to know him he was a good friend, loyal and even caring, he just had gone through a lot of shit and wasn't that good at recovering from it. So Naruto could say he felt a bit bad for the bastard.

" Look. " he started, looking at the forest like Sasuke, he looked at him from the corner of his eye, turning his head just a little. " I know it's been hard, okay? I've never been out there like you, and I can't begin to imagine what sort of shit you two went through, or what you've had to do to survive. " Naruto took a deep breath. " And I understand why you're so reluctant to all of this, hell, I would be too. " he said, and noticed how Sasuke was now looking straight at him. " But if you don't help people understand, it won't get better. " he finished, turning to Sasuke.

And to his surprise, he wasn't frowning, not smirking, he was just looking at him.

" Let's start again, shall we? " said Naruto, and a noise emerged from the forest.

" Let me. " said Sasuke, took the rifle and shoot it in the head, Naruto smiled for some reason and took the radio.

" One down on gate 1… " he started, Sasuke looked at him. " Sasuke's. " he added smiling, Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

" _Look at that, finally!_ " giggled Asuma.

" _Good job, Sasuke._ " said Shikamaru.

" _Not a vigilance virgin anymore, congrats._ " said Lee laughing, everyone did so, even Naruto, Sasuke tilted his head, narrowing his eyes.

Naruto looked at Sasuke, crossed his arms and kept smiling, Sasuke sighed and rolled his eyes.

" If it removes that stupid smile from your face, I'll do it. " he said seething, Naruto sighed, but couldn't completely erase his smile.

" Perfect, I'll start! " he said smiling, Sasuke raised an eyebrow again, not even he himself could understand why he was so excited, but he was. " I'm 25, I was about to graduate from architecture in college when it all went to shit, I love ramen, I hate selfishness, and I like practicing martial arts. " he said, still with a smile. " What else…" he said thinking. " Asuma trained me to be in the vigilance, I knew shit about weapons before, oh, and I'm gay. " he finished, Sasuke didn't move a muscle.

" That was the most lame elementary school introduction. " Sasuke said, Naruto erased his smile, seething.

" Excuse me, I don't think you'd hear the words shit and gay in an elementary school introduction. " said Naruto, he wasn't going to let that comment upset him, Sasuke sighed. " Now you go. " he insisted.

" What if I don't want to? " asked Sasuke, Naruto giggled.

" Let me put it this way, it's barely 11pm, we still have seven hours to go. " said Naruto, smirking. " If you don't do it, I'll make those seven hours unbearable, and I'm good at that. " he threatened him.

" So you're saying that last night wasn't unbearable intentionally? " Sasuke asked narrowing his eyes.

" You've seen nothing. " said Naruto smirking, Sasuke sighed.

" Fine, I'll do it. " he replied throwing the towel, he did not wanted to suffer even more, Naruto giggled. " I'm 27, I had just one year in the police when shit hit the fan, I don't "love" anything in particular, people are not my favorite thing in the world, I…" he sighed. " I also like martial arts, and…" he sighed again. " I am also gay. " he finished, Naruto surprised, but slowly began smiling.

" You're also gay? " he asked still smiling, Sasuke frowned.

" I just said I am. " he replied shrugging.

Now that, was a surprise. What were the odds? Both thought the same.

" Never would've guessed. " he shrugged as well.

" Same here. " said Sasuke raising both eyebrows.

Naruto giggled. " So you can actually raise both. " Sasuke looked at him unamused, frowning, Naruto laughed.

" Just joking, god. " Naruto said shrugging.

" Now, can we have a moment of peace and quiet? " Sasuke asked, Naruto erased his smile for a second.

" Sure. " Naruto agreed, shrugging again, Sasuke looked to the forest again.

" Thanks. " he said, Naruto actually smiled a little with that, it was indeed progress, and that made him happy somehow. Maybe he wasn't really that bad. Maybe.

A few hours passed, two more were killed on gate 4, and in a blink it was already 2am.

" Did you know that your brother ate lunch with Sakura today? " he asked suddenly, but without even looking at Sasuke, he didn't either.

" I do. " he replied. " The bastard was talking nonstop about it earlier. " he added, Naruto turned at that comment.

" You think Itachi likes her? " Naruto asked.

" I told you, dobe, he's a fucking mystery. " he sighed. " But if I had to say yes or no, I'd say yes. " Sasuke said.

" Well, look at that. " he said, looking at the floor.

" What? " Sasuke asked, turning to him.

" Oh, no, nothing, just surprised that they liked each other so fast. " said Naruto looking at Sasuke. " Although, not so much, Sakura is cute as fuck. " Naruto giggled, Sasuke, amazingly, said nothing else.

" Can I ask you something? " asked Naruto suddenly after a few minutes.

Sasuke sighed and looked back at Naruto.

" What? " he asked.

" Have you two really been alone since the beginning? " Naruto asked seriously.

Sasuke lowered his eyes, in thought.

" No. " Sasuke answered, looking outside. " And that's all the answer you're getting, dumbass. " he added, looking at Naruto, but Naruto couldn't be upset.

" That's okay. " he said. " I'll make an easier one, then. " Sasuke raised an eyebrow. " Your favorite food. " Naruto began smiling.

" It's a little silly to have a favorite food when you can't choose anymore. " said Sasuke, Naruto rolled his eyes.

" Before. " he cleared up. " I said mine, cupped ramen. " he smiled.

" Fine. " Sasuke sighed. " It's minestrone. " he replied.

" Oh that soup is so damn good. " Naruto said, pressing his lips together. " Miss it.

" Don't get me started. " Sasuke sighed and Naruto giggled.

They didn't talk again after that, Naruto killed one zombie more, and there was another one by gate 2.

And suddenly, the shift was almost done.

" Finally, sunrise…" said Naruto looking outside.

" Thank god. " Sasuke stretched his arms a little and rubbing his eyes.

When the clock finally hit 6am they went down.

" _Another good night of work, guys, well done_ " said Shikamaru's voice on the radio, sounded tired as hell though.

" See you later, moron? " Naruto asked Sasuke after they had left their rifles.

" Too soon, dobe. " said Sasuke shaking his head and started walking away, Naruto seethed, but smiled for some reason as he watched him go away.

" Looks like you two are making progress. " said Gaara suddenly at his back, he turned.

" We actually are. " he smiled, Gaara looked surprised.

" Really? " asked.

" Kinda. " he replied shrugging.

" Good. " he said, smiling. " See you later, Naruto.

" See you! " Naruto waved at him.

 **xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

 **May 8th, 6am / Headquarters logbook**

" You really think this is necessary? " Minato asked, himself, Kakashi, Obito, and Shikamaru were together with Tsunade.

" Based on what Shikamaru told us, that thing Naruto saw on yesterday's night shift might be trouble. " he replied.

" It could be people, a group maybe. " said Shikamaru. " We have to be sure. " he insisted.

" I know, I know. " sighed Tsunade, worried. " Fine, we'll have a meeting this afternoon, be here at 4. " she finished standing up, so did everyone else.

" Understood. " everyone replied.

" Let's hope it's not bad news. " she added and everyone said goodbye to start working.

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	2. Logbook 2: Unexpected

**May 22** **nd** **, 11am / Itachi logbook**

"Hello" Said Itachi going into the hospital, Sakura waved right back.

"Itachi, hi!" She replied. She was attending one of his teammates, Kakashi. "So, is it better?" She asked him, he had hurt his arm in the last scavenger round a few days ago, just a scratch though.

"Way better, thanks, Sakura" He replied with a smile.

"No problem, Kakashi" Sakura said shaking her head and smiling.

"Itachi, Obito gave you the report?" Kakashi asked him, he nodded.

"Already with Minato" He replied.

"Good job, now, if you let me, I'll check on him" Said Kakashi heading for the door, we said goodbye and he was gone.

"So, lunch?" asked Itachi looking at the pink haired girl, she smiled.

"Sure, let me wash my hands and get ready, I'll be right out" She said and went inside the hospital's bathroom.

He didn't understand it quite well, but in just three weeks this girl had become a big part of his daily and "normal" life now, starting with the fact that they were starting to feel like they had a normal life again, or at least, the feeling of one. He had also became real close to those two guys, Kakashi and Minato, he saw a part of himself in them and shared similar opinions on almost everything, so it was easy to work with them, and even chat from time to time. He even started to be invited to some headquarters meetings.

Even his brother, he thought, had started adapting, at baby steps speed of course, but progressing indeed.

Those rusted but strong steel walls with western looking houses, old but solid, had became, somehow, home.

"Ready!" She said coming out of the bathroom.

They went to have a small lunch in the porch of the hospital, where a nice small wooden table and chairs stood there like if they had been built attached to the house.

"You know, Itachi?" Sakura said suddenly. "I don't know if Sasuke told you, but did you know that he and Naruto were having lunch together yesterday?" Itachi started choking on his bite immediately.

"What?!" He asked puzzled. "I know that they don't want to kill each other anymore but…didn't know my brother had left his leave-me-alone lunch rule." He added smiling. "He didn't tell me though."

"Naruto either, I happened to saw them on my break" She said shrugging her shoulders, frowning just a bit.

"Those little shits" Itachi sighed in surprise, Sakura laughed.

"It looks like they're actually becoming friends, though, that's good" Sakura added.

"It'd be a miracle, but it does seem so" Itachi sighed, still smiling.

"Crossed fingers" laughed Sakura.

 **Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

 **May 22** **nd** **, 7.30pm /** **Vigilance night shift. Gate 1. Logbook / Naruto and Sasuke**

"Hey, asshole" said Naruto suddenly, for some reason they had not said a word to each other since the shift started. And by that point, two weeks had already passed since they arrived, and Naruto and Sasuke had started to talk more, and to actually get along, to their and everyone else's shock.

"What?" Sasuke asked, looking to the forest, Naruto to the city.

"Sakura and Itachi seem to be hitting it off quite well." Naruto laughed.

"It does seem so" agreed Sasuke nodding. "I almost never see the bastard" seethed. Naruto laughed again.

"I'm still keeping an eye on him" Naruto said.

"Good luck with that" Sasuke snorted.

Naruto pouted.

And all of the sudden, a small and low sound of a "hm" came out of Sasuke's mouth and a little smile formed on his lips, without looking at Naruto, but the blonde man turned directly at him, not believing his eyes.

He's smiling, he thought.

"And I thought I wouldn't live to see that" He smiled, Sasuke's smile disappeared and turned into a raised eyebrow, looking at Naruto. "Oh, come on!" he cried.

Sasuke squint.

"You were smiling!" Naruto hissed crossing his arms, Sasuke kept squinting.

"So?" he asked shrugging.

"I've never seen you smiling, that's all" Naruto replied doing the same gesture.

"Don't get use to it." Sasuke sighed raising an eyebrow.

Naruto smirked. "I bet I can get you to smile more" he said.

"Why the hell is that important to you?" Sasuke asked, still with his eyebrow raised.

"'Cause I'm fucking tired of seeing your buttface all night long, that's why" Naruto hissed, Sasuke frowned a little. "It'd be nice to see a smile from time to time, you know?" he added.

Sasuke softened his frown.

"You're so annoying" Sasuke sighed and looked away, letting his face rest in the palm of his hand.

"You like me like this" Naruto laughed, he knew Sasuke was growing fond of him, he could even say that Sasuke considered him his only friend, or friend to be, maybe.

And suddenly, Sasuke chuckled.

"Don't lie to yourself like that, usuratonkachi" Sasuke said without looking at him, but still, smiling.

"There it is!" Naruto laughed at they sight.

Sasuke rolled his eyes and little by little, erased his smile.

An hour passed by, none of us said anything.

"Sasuke" Naruto said suddenly.

He rolled his eyes, sighing, but slowly turned towards Naruto and noticed he was still looking at the city.

"What happened to the whole 'asshole' shit?" Sasuke asked puzzled.

"I wanted to ask you something serious" Naruto replied turning to him. "But if you still prefer 'asshole'..." he continued shrugging but Sasuke interrupted him.

"I don't" Sasuke sighed. "And I know what you're going to ask me, you try to almost every fucking night" he sighed again and turned his face to the forest.

"If you know I'll keep asking why don't you just answer then?" Naruto seethed.

Sasuke looked thoughtful.

"Why are you so obsessed about it?" Sasuke asked, looking back at him.

"I…" Naruto began, sighed slightly. "Isn't wanting to get to know you better good enough? To understand you?" he asked, Sasuke again looked thoughtful, he even frowned a little.

"Fine…" Sasuke sighed after a few seconds. "But first." he added, turned to the woods with his rifle and shot a zombie right between the eyes.

"If there's something I won't ever question is your aiming" Naruto said with a light chuckle.

Sasuke limited himself to snort.

"I hate those bastards" Sasuke said. "But anyway…" he began.

Sasuke turned to Naruto but kept his eyes on the floor, Naruto on the other hand, had his eyes fixed on Sasuke.

"When all this madness started, when people began to lose their shit, Itachi called me and said we were going to mom and dad's…" he began. "My parents had a big house outside of town, so, we took all the food and useful stuff from our apartments, I took some guns from the police station and went there" Naruto saw where this was going, and felt a pressure on his chest. "We stayed there for quite long, until one day thousands of those motherfuckers left town and headed for the suburbs..." he sighed. "We lost mom and dad that day, Itachi and I managed to go out because of that, actually. For a long time I wish we hadn't." Naruto felt his eyes watery, his chest ached more. "After that we wonder in the woods for weeks or months, I honestly don't remember, but we eventually found an empty town and a bit of food, even two guns thanks to a couple of poor dead bastards" he chuckled a little. "We were robbed, though, and almost killed there, actually, goodbye to our guns, food and car...amazingly, soon after, another group found us, smaller, they also had food and weapons, but they were good people, creepy, but good, so we joined them. We stayed together for a year, traveling around, surviving, until…"

Sasuke stopped, frowning.

"Another group found us, just like yours, looking for people to help them in their town." Sasuke said and raised his eyes to Naruto, his eyes were cold and angry. "We trusted them, went with them...and I still don't know how we managed to get out alive." he sighed, and looked at the floor again. "Or at least, Itachi and I did..." he said. "I really don't want to go into details, it was hell." Naruto nodded. "We started traveling around just the two of us again, for a couple of months, and then Kakashi found us. End of story" Finished Sasuke with a sigh. "Happy?"

"No wonder you didn't trust us" said Naruto.

"Have you lost someone?" Sasuke asked, looking outside.  
Naruto turned to his mate, thoughtful, he wanted to comfort Sasuke, but he didn't know what to say. He couldn't begin to understand what he had gone through and how he felt.

"I have…" he replied. "But not like that, and not that close." he admitted. "I have never been out there like that, I can't begin to understand how it must've been" he said looking at Sasuke. "But thank you for telling me"

Sasuke looked surprised, lowered his eyes and made that "hm" sound again.

"I'm sorry you had to go through all that bullshit…" Naruto added.

"Why? That's just how the world is now…" he said calmly, shrugging even.

"Still, it's shit" said Naruto.

"Yeah…" Sasuke said "Anyway, I hope you're aware that you're the only person I've ever told this to" he sighed.

Naruto smiled despite everything, that could be a sign of friendship, or the desire to be friends.

"I know" was the only thing Naruto could say. "And again, thank you" he continued, Sasuke nodded, still without looking at him, he sighed with a little smile and stretched a little towards Sasuke, holding his fist up to him.

Sasuke turned, saw the gesture and chuckled.

"Are you really expecting me to bro-fist you, dumbass?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Won't do you any harm" said Naruto frowning.  
Sasuke hesitated, to his astonishment, and finally…

"Fine, if that shuts you up" Sasuke sighed and responded to the gesture.

"See, moron? Wasn't so hard" Naruto laughed.

Sasuke frowned "Don't get too comfortable, dobe" he sighed again and looked away.

" _Two down on gate 2!_ " celebrated Temari through the radio.

" _You're the best_ " replied Shikamaru.

" _Thanks_ " she chuckled in response.

"How many have you killed?" Sasuke asked suddenly.

"Zombies?" Naruto asked puzzled. "Well...I don't know, hundreds maybe, I scavenged for a long time so I honestly lost count" Naruto shrugged with a smile. "You?"

"Lost count" he replied. "You were a scavenger?" Sasuke asked with his all time favorite raised eyebrow.

"Of course, at the beginning" Naruto replied with a proud smile, not only because he could brag about his scavenger days but because Sasuke actually asked something about him. "Asuma trained me and I went with him and Nagato to find supplies, my dad also came from time to time" he explained. "I'm quite good at it, or well...I became good after several near death experiences but that's not important! The important thing is..." he pouted but stopped, out of the bloom Sasuke had started laughing quietly, Naruto was shocked.

"Usuratonkachi…" Sasuke sighed still with a little smile on his face.

"Hey, I'm not a slowpoke!" Naruto laughed, he wasn't even mad.

"You are" Sasuke replied with a smirk.

Naruto squint. "Bastard"

Sasuke made his "hm" sound again and looked away, erasing his smile little by little.

" _Guys_ " said suddenly Lee's voice on the radio.

" _Fuck me...is it 3am already?_ " sighed Shikamaru, Naruto chuckled.

" _What do you call a bee that doesn't die?_ " Lee asked, already laughing.

Nobody said anything.

" _A zombee!_ " Lee laughed.

" _A week without nothing and this is what you got? I'm disappointed, son_ " asked Asuma laughing.

Everyone laughed, even…

Sasuke chuckled.

"I don't know how you've been doing this for two years, I already want to kill the guy" sighed Sasuke.

Naruto laughed. "Most of the times we just ignore him, but it's still fun" Naruto shrugged.

"If you say so, dumbass…" he sighed again.

And before they noticed the shift had ended.

"So, lunch later?" Naruto asked Sasuke after they had returned their weapons.

"If I say no you won't leave me alone, right?" he asked.

"Probably not" Naruto replied smirking.

Sasuke sighed. "Fine, dumbass, see you later" he said and walked away.

 **Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

 **May 23** **rd** **, 1.00pm /** **Sasuke logbook**

He had woke up just a few minutes ago and decided to go and rest on one of the gardens a little. Especially one near the main entrance, the biggest and the one with more green on it, it even had full green soft grass, unlike the others, in which grass wasn't so strong. This one even had flowers on it, so it was a real nice place to rest.

Until…

"Hey, asshole" Naruto's voice caught his attention.

"Great, rest ruined" he sighed.

"Good to see you too" Naruto squint. "Brought lunch" he said with two small containers on his hands.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

"I don't remember you saying you were bringing the lunch…" Sasuke replied, puzzled, keeping his eyebrow on his place.

"I know, but I did anyways, I think you might like it since you're always eating the same" Naruto laughed, sitting in front of him.

"Look who's talking, Uzumaki I-only-eat-instant-noodles Naruto" Sasuke sighed, despite all the grown food on the city, Naruto loved to eat instant noodles that the scavengers found on their travels.

"I don't eat them always!" he pouted. "And you're welcome, asshole" he complained taking one of the containers and putting it in front of Sasuke.

To Sasuke's amusement, he actually felt bad for Naruto, at the end he had thought of him and brought his lunch, he didn't know why he had found that as a nice gesture.

"You didn't had to…" he began, taking the container, Naruto raised his eyes to him, shocked. "Thanks" he added, Naruto smiled.

The food was, as almost always, eggs with carrots, onions and a little of tomato sauce. It wasn't very glamorous, but it's what they had, and at least the cookers were really good.

"Today's real good I think" Naruto said while eating.

Sasuke snorted.

"Kinda" he replied, almost finishing his meal.

 **xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

 **May 23** **rd** **, 3.00pm /** **Naruto logbook**

After he had lunch with Sasuke he had to go meet with his mom because she had asked for help carrying some stuff to the storage, after he was done and on his way to his house to take a shower, Sakura called him from the hospital.

"Naruto!" she called, waving from the door with a smile, he rushed to meet her.

"Sakura, what's up?" he greeted with a smile.

"Not much, almost nobody has been here today" she sighed. "Only Kakashi, Minato, you and, well, Itachi for lunch" she added, blushing a little at the end. "Naruto…" she started again before the blonde could say anything else.

"Yes?" he asked raising an eyebrow, he knew where this was going.

"You know I always tell you everything…" she began, smiling, a bit embarrassed.

"Sakura" he began. "You like Itachi don't you?" he asked.

She bit her lower lip a little, with a big smile.

"I think so, I think I really like him, a lot" she replied. "He's so handsome, and so smart and sweet, he's even funny!" she explained. "How many times have you seen that happen?" she asked.

"Not many, especially with the few options you have now" Naruto laughed.

"But I'm afraid I'm just jumping carelessly into this, you know?" she added, erasing her smile a little.

"You know what, Sakura, it's the fucking zombie apocalypse" he began, giving it a big sigh "You're lucky if you can find someone you like, and we never know how long we've got, so…" he continued, Sakura was already smiling again, "Fuck it, you know? If you like him, don't go around doubting, ask him" he finished, Sakura laughed.

"You're right…" she closed her eyes and smiled softly. "He's a scavenger, he could die tomorrow and I'm just gonna regret not saying anything" she sighed, opening her eyes.

"Exactly" Naruto smiled. "Also, Sasuke kinda suggested he might like you too" he whispered.

"I won't get my hopes up, though, but thanks" she smiled. "It's always good to talk to you" she added and they bro-fisted.

"Another thing, how's everything with Sasuke?" she asked with a weird mischievous smile.

"First, why the hell are you smiling like that?" Naruto frowned, puzzled and a bit grossed out.

"Nothing, I'm curious, I know you're getting along" she explained. "And I saw you having lunch the other day…" Naruto squint. "...and you looked...kinda...cute together…." she added, biting her lower lip in embarrassment but yet smiling.

Naruto squint even further. "Not my type, sorry" he said after a few more seconds of squinting at her, ending with a sigh.

"Come on, he's handsome" she said with a playful voice, crossing her arms. "And gay" she added.

"Yeah, his looks and all ain't the problem, he's handsome, but the attitude is just…" Naruto shrugged.

"I see…" she sighed. "Oh well, too bad" she shrugged, still smiling, something inside told her that his opinion could change sometime in the future.

"I know you want me to have someone, but I'm okay, I got dad, mom, and you, ok?" he added with a smile, and a wink.

"Yeah" she replied.

"Well, gotta go, I did lots of work for mom and I really need a shower" he said, they high-fived to say goodbye and parted ways.

'That we look cute together, geez, Sakura' he laughed to himself as he walked to his house.

 **Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

 **May 23** **rd** **, 9.30pm /** **Vigilance night shift. Gate 1. Logbook / Naruto and Sasuke**

"You know? Sakura likes your brother" Naruto said suddenly, they hadn't talked much since they arrived.

"Knew it" he replied, they weren't looking at each other but somehow Sasuke knew he was pouting. "And I think Itachi likes her as well" he added.

"I got the same feeling" Naruto agreed, he had seen the both of them together and Itachi looked the happiest when he was with her.

"There's no escaping you, then" Sasuke sighed, Naruto turned at him, frowning.

"What's that suppose to mean?" he asked, Sasuke snorted.

"Exactly what you understood" he replied without looking back at him.

Naruto pouted. "Even if they didn't like each other you wouldn't be able to get rid of me, asshole" he protested sticking his tongue out to him, Sasuke turned his look at him at that precise moment, frowning.

"You're so childish" he hissed.

"You can't lie to me, you like me" Naruto laughed.

Sasuke snorted again. "Don't get so full of yourself, usuratonkachi" he sighed.

Naruto just smiled.

Suddenly a wrecking branch sound came from the forest, Sasuke took his rifle and pointed to the woods, widened his eyes and backed out, laying on the floor.

"Down, dobe, now" he whispered, Naruto did as he said without questioning.

"What's wrong?" Naruto asked, he also began whispering.

"Strangers" Sasuke replied. "Two men, they have guns"

"Shit…" Naruto hissed and took the radio. "Guys, two strange men with guns near gate 1, we're hidden, be careful." he whispered to the radio and lowered its volume.

" _The fuck?_ " asked Lee through the radio.

" _Are you sure, Naruto?_ " asked Shikamaru.

"Well, I didn't see them, Sasuke did" said Naruto.

" _Sasuke, tell us_ " said Gaara.

"They were two young men, both with 9mm guns in their hands, they're almost out of the woods, facing this direction" Sasuke explained.

" _Fuck dammit_ " Shikamaru hissed.

" _Let's not panic_ " said Asuma. " _Sasuke, Naruto, can any of you check if they're still there?_ " he asked.

"I'll do it" Naruto whispered lifting his face just a little above the edge of the gate. "They're just outside the woods, just standing there, talking." Naruto informed on the radio.

" _What the fuck…_ " sighed Shikamaru.

"Shit, they've started moving, they heading in your direction, Shikamaru" Naruto said suddenly. "Be careful" he added.

" _Of course_ " Asuma replied.

"Fuck, I can't see them anymore..." Naruto said before hiding again.

"Told you the world is shit" Sasuke sighed.

"Not the time, asshole" Naruto pouted.

"We really need to be careful, they might be the same lunatics that almost killed us." Sasuke whispered, clenching his fists.

" _Everyone, we haven't seen them, please be careful_ " said Asuma on the radio.

Everyone answered a short and low "yes" on the radio.

Strangely enough, nothing else happened no one saw those two strangers again, neither heard anything strange. No sound came out of the forest beside two or three zombies more. That freaked them out even more.

" _Naruto, Sasuke, sorry, but when the shift ends we are going to Tsunade's directly_ " said Shikamaru on the radio when it was almost time to go down. " _Sleep will have to wait, we need her to know what happened today_ " he finished.

"Sure" Naruto said.

"Let me look for Itachi first, then" said Sasuke suddenly.

" _Why?_ " Shikamaru asked.

"I have a hunch, but...I need Itachi to confirm it." he replied.

" _Fine, look for Itachi and we'll meet at the headquarters._ " Shikamaru agreed.

A few minutes after that, the shift ended.

"I'll go with you" Naruto said after they were down.

"No, go to headquarters, I'll meet you there" said Sasuke firmly and went running to the house.

 **Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

 **May 24** **th** **, 6.30am / Headquarters Logbook**

Tsunade, Minato, Shikamaru, Asuma, Nagato, Kakashi, Naruto, Sasuke and Itachi were sitting in the livingroom of the headquarters, anxious.

"So, tell me, Shikamaru, what happened" Tsunade said with her arms crossed on her chest.

"I'm not the most suitable to tell you that" he shook his head and looked at Sasuke and Naruto.

"Speak, boys" Tsunade demanded, crossing her arms above the table.

"Two men came out of the woods, we couldn't quite see their faces, but we saw they had a 9mm guns, they stood outside the woods for quite a time, maybe talking, then they headed for gate 4, or that's what it looked like, but we didn't see anything else." Naruto explained.

"Did they see any of you?" Nagato asked.

"Don't think so" Sasuke replied, shaking his head.

"Who could they be?" Minato worried, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"Sasuke said he had a hunch…" Shikamaru said, everyone looked at Sasuke.

Sasuke sighed and turned to Itachi. "They had black shirts with a white circle in the middle"

Itachi gasped immediately. "Impossible…" he whispered.

"That's what I saw" Sasuke added, shrugging.

"Care to explain, boys?" asked Tsunade.

"Before you found us...we…" Itachi paused "...were captured by this crazy as fuck group that 'helped people see the truth and coexist with god' or some shit like that" said Itachi frowning "Sick bastards that believe zombies are sent from god or some bullshit and killed people so they'd turn into them and they were all in this houses and they feed them and all" he explained, everyone gasped.

Naruto turned to Sasuke, he looked at him from the corner of his eye and nodded, the blonde took a deep breath.

"And you think those men you saw yesterday…" said Asuma looking at Sasuke.

"Yes" he replied.

The room went silent.

"What should we do?" asked Minato.

"Do any of you two remember where they are?" Asuma asked.

"It's far from here, down south" Itachi replied pointing south with his head.

"Why would they be all the way here then?" Kakashi asked, worried.

"I can think of two reasons." said Nagato looking at Sasuke and Itachi.

"Nagato…" Minato gasped.

"He's right, we escaped and killed two of them in the process, it's not crazy to think they might be looking for us" Sasuke sighed, clenching his fists.

"To them, we escaped god, it's only logical they want to hunt us down" Itachi said with a deep gloomy voice.

Nobody knew what to say.

"How long since you escaped?" Minato asked.

"I don't know, you found us two or three weeks after, I think" Itachi replied, not remembering correctly, keeping track of time in this era was a bit hard.  
"Damn it" Tsunade hissed. "Nagato, what do you think?" she asked the red haired man.

If it were other kind of people, Nagato would have voted for them to go, but Itachi had actually become a good member of the community, especially with the scavengers, and Sasuke was the one that noticed this threat, he couldn't just dispose of them.

"I don't know" he sighed "How many are there, did you got to see that when they captured you?" he asked the two brothers.

"I don't know if what we saw was the whole group, they were around 20 if I remember correctly" Itachi replied, Sasuke was almost at shock, he was deathly scared that those people would found them again.

Naruto, on almost the other side of the room, was just looking at Sasuke's terrified expression, and the desire of going there to at least give him a pat on the shoulder was too strong.

"How about hunting them ourselves first? Element of surprise." Asuma said suddenly while Nagato was thinking.

"No" Itachi and Sasuke said immediately at unison.

"It's suicide" Itachi added.

"They'll find a way to get in here eventually, and we're not completely sure if they are truly the same people" Asuma explained, and that was a logic nobody there could argue against.

"Asuma is right" Kakashi said. "We don't necessarily have to fight them or anything, it could be just a recognition mission, that's all" he added, pretty sure of himself.

There was silent for a while.

"I agree with Asuma and Kakashi" Minato said suddenly. "It's not use just waiting here for them to get in, we need to know who they really are, how many are they, everything we can without engaging" he looked determined, scared as shit, but determined.

"What do say, Nagato, Shikamaru?" Tsunade asked, but Itachi spoke before any of the others.

"It's too dangerous, their place has a very good security, I still don't know how we got out." Itachi explained.

"I agree with them, nevertheless" Shikamaru sighed. "It might be dangerous, and it's still kind of a bad idea but, it's still a better one than staying here, just waiting" he explained himself.

"I too think it's a suicide mission" Nagato began. "But I can't think of a better way to be sure who these people are and how we can face them" he added.

"Then, that's exactly what we're gonna do" Tsunade sentenced.

"We can make a small group of scavengers and go check where is their hide out" Shikamaru proposed. "You must go, though, Itachi" Shikamaru added.

"Of course" Itachi exclaimed, Sasuke gasp.

"Then I'll go too" he stood up.

"No" Itachi turned towards Sasuke, even frowning. "You stay here"

"No way in hell I'm letting you go alone" Sasuke hissed, clenching his fists.

Naruto, and everyone else for the matter, was impressed to see Sasuke caring so much for someone, it's logical, but still was shocking.

"Remember our rule" he added at the end, frowning, Itachi soften his expression.

"God damn you, Sasuke" he sighed. "Fine" he agreed reluctantly.

"We got two then, how about a group of say...5 or 6?" Asuma asked.

"I say 5 is okay" Shikamaru replied. "We'd only need three more" he said. "Volunteers, of course"

"I'll go" Naruto said standing up, death serious.

"Are you sure, son?" Minato asked, scared, but he knew he wouldn't be able of talking him out of this one.

He took a deep breath. "Yes"

Minato looked at him worried, especially for what his wife was gonna say about this.

Sasuke looked at him shocked, but for some reason couldn't say anything.

"Just two left, then" Shikamaru sighed.

"I'll go with them" Asuma said, raising his hand.

Shikamaru looked at him, worried.

"They will need a soldier" he added.

Shikamaru knew they were having a big conversation later.

"So...just one left" Nagato sighed.

"I'll go as well" Kakashi raised his hand.

"Are you sure?" Tsunade asked.

"Sure" he replied. "I've been out enough times with Itachi to trust him" Kakashi added, Itachi and everyone was moved.

"Then, it's decided" Tsunade sighed "Minato, Kakashi and Shikamaru, please go around the town and tell everyone to come here immediately" she asked looking at the three of them.

They nodded and left the building, they all went out to wait at the entrance for the rest of the town to arrive.

"Everyone!" Tsunade said when everyone was already there, everyone paid attention. "Something happened during the night shift" she began, all the others were standing by her side, in front of the crowd. "Two strangers with guns were wondering around the wall, we don't know who theu are, but we might have an idea of who they could be, thanks to Itachi and Sasuke" she explained, some people were whispering between each other already. "So, we've formed a small team to go and check who they might be, if they really are who we think they are, compile as much information as possible, and come back" she continued. "Our team will be, Itachi, Sasuke, Naruto, Kakashi and Asuma" she said while pointing at them with one of her arms.

Sakura looked at Itachi, he looked back, she was scared, shaking her head, she didn't want him to go.

"We know it's dangerous, we know it might not go the way we want to" she kept talking "But this is what we must do to ensure our safety, and our team is well trained, prepared and trustworthy, everything will be fine" she finished. "They'll go tomorrow morning" she added, Sakura was biting her nails off. "That's it, thank you for coming, please go back to your activities. If any of you have any question, you know where to find me."

 **Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

 **May 24** **th** **, 9.00am / Hospital**

Sasuke and Itachi were on their way to their house, but Itachi stopped.

"I...I'm going to the hospital for a bit, okay?" Itachi said when Sasuke noticed he had stopped walking.

"Sakura must be furious" Sasuke sighed, Itachi looked worried.

"Yeah, I...I need to talk to her" he sighed.

"Go, I really just need to sleep…" Sasuke shrugged, I think they were both scared to death and were not thinking clearly.

"See you in a few hours" they waved goodbye and went separate ways.

Itachi headed to the hospital and Sakura was actually seating in the entrance stairs with her head on her knees.

"Sakura?" he whispered as he approached.

She raised her face to him, her eyes watery and her eyebrows in a frown.

"Are you really going?" she asked, he sighed and sat down next to her in the stairs.

"I have to" he said, putting one hand on her shoulder. "Those guys might the ones that captured us last time, if they're here because of us...we must be the one to make sure of that" he explained, Sakura nodded.

"I imagined" she whispered. "It's just so...such a dangerous mission I…" she began but didn't know what to say. "I'm scared for you" she whispered.

"We'll be okay" he replied, trying to comfort her.

"I know, I know" she smiled. "I just hope I'm not ending with one of you in that operating room" she added, pouting a little.

"I promise" he laughed. "So...lunch today, right?" he asked, she laughed.

"Yes, lunch today"

 **Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

 **May 24** **th** **, 2.00pm / Sasuke logbook**

Sasuke woke up, not rested at all, the stress of having to go back out to find those motherfuckers scared the shit out of him and his anxiety levels were sky high.

He went downstairs, and on his way he heard a knock on the door.

"Sasuke" he heard Naruto's voice from outside, knocking.

'Oh...lunch' he thought and went to the door.

"Hey" he said opening the door, Naruto was in shock.

"Yikes, you look like shit" he said raising an eyebrow.

"I feel like shit" he answered.

"Are you okay?" he asked, since this morning when they decided the whole plan, Naruto was really worried about him.

"No, I'm not" Sasuke replied with honesty, he was too tired to even annoy him. "I couldn't rest a thing, I had nightmares, panic attacks, you name it…" he sighed rubbing his eyes.

"I think you might be in need of some good food" he said showing him the containers in his hands. "Mom's specialty, fried cauliflower with rice" he smiled softly. "Could I come in?" he asked.

Sasuke sighed, maybe some company would do him good, even if it was him.

"Sure, why the hell not" he shrugged and let him in.

"Why the fuck did you volunteer, usuratonkachi?" he asked by half of their lunch, he felt a little better, the food was actually good. "Do you realize it can go very, very, very wrong?" he added.

"I…" he started, not knowing where to begin. "This is gonna sound really stupid but" he chuckled. "For some reason the first thing that popped into my head was, dear god, if he dies out there and I wasn't there to help, I'm gonna fucking regret it the rest of my fucking life." Naruto looked down to his food, shrugging and then back at Sasuke. "That's why, I just thought that...we should look out for each other, that's what friends do." he added, Sasuke was in shock.

"You're right" he said. "It did sound stupid" he whispered looking down at his food, while suddenly, a small smile appeared on his face, Naruto saw it, and a bigger smile appeared on his. "Thanks, though" he added raising his head to look at Naruto.

"Don't mention it" Naruto laughed.

 **Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

 **May 25** **th** **, 7:00 am / Main gate / Departure for recognition mission**

They had machetes, guns, flares, flashlights, food and water, they were almost done gathering everything they might need, tension building up in the air and in their chests while they finished everything.

"So, I think we have everything" Asuma said holding the map of the area. "I have our main route here" he said, showing everyone the map where a main route was marked on black. "Of course, it's just the start, Kakashi is our best guy tracking so we'll try to find the most recent trail and we'll follow it. Understood?" he asked, everyone nodded.

"We'll go in ten minutes" he added.

Itachi had decided to go to the hospital to say goodbye to Sakura but as he turned around to go she was right there in front of him.

"Sakura…" he said, surprised.

"Glad I made it on time" she said relieved, panting a little, it looked like she had ran.

"I actually had planned going to the hospital before going" he smiled, shrugging. "I couldn't go without saying goodbye" he added.

"Me neither" she said, smiling, but had a sad expression on her face. "Be safe, okay?" she said, her eyes watery.

"I will" he replied, smiling back, softly. "I'll take care of Naruto as well" he added, he knew they were best friends.

"Thanks, I didn't want to interrupt her mother" she laughed, Kushina was hugging Naruto goodbye.

The stayed quiet for a few seconds.

"You'll be okay, right?" she asked again.

"We'll be back before you can even notice" he replied.

"I meant...only you, Itachi. Will _you_ be okay?" she repeated, she wanted to make sure he understood her. "Promise you'll be back safe, I...I haven't even finished the other book you gave me" she added as a cheap excuse.

Itachi laughed, and realized they were a little less than a meter apart from each other.

"I promise I'll be back before you can finish it" he replied smiling.

Sakura laughed and dried her eyes, which were starting to cry.

"I…" she began but couldn't talk, so she looked up at Itachi, pressed her lips together, and in a quick movement she hugged Itachi by the neck and gave him a firm kiss on the lips.

Gasps were heard around. Even Sasuke noticed, whispering 'knew it' and rolling his eyes.

Itachi was shocked at first but immediately returned the hug and closed his eyes, answering to the kiss, which he didn't know he wanted so bad until that precise moment. They kissed for a couple of seconds and broke apart slowly, looking only at each other.

"Sorry I…" Sakura began saying, almost whispering.

"No" he interrupted her. "It's okay. I wanted it too" he smiled and kissed her, quickly but gently, once more. "I'll come back, it's a promise" he whispered after the kiss.

"I'll be waiting" she smiled, he smiled back.

"Okay, guys, we're going" Asuma said, breaking Itachi and Sakura's embrace.

"Naruto!" Sakura yelled at him. "Be careful, please!"

"I will, Sakura! I got an amazing team" he replied with a big smile, to calm her.

They went outside while Shikamaru closed the gate and waved them goodbye with sort of a military salute.

"So, let's begin" Asuma said as he headed straight ahead, with Kakashi by his side and the others following him. "Sasuke, you said that they disappeared when they headed for gate 4, right?" Asuma asked looking at the map.

"Right" he replied.

"So, Kakashi, do your magic, let's begin here" Asuma said pointing at the place where they men were the previous night.

Kakashi went on and about around the bushes and actually found a trail, the men apparently had gone towards gate 4 but deepening into the forest more and more with each steps, Kakashi was ahead of the group, Asuma and the rest behind him, guns in hand.

They walked into the forest for quite a while now and they still had some kind of trail, but since they had been walking for almost half an hour, they decided to rest for a little.

"So, Itachi" Naruto whispered to him suddenly.

"I know what you're gonna tell me, kid" he replied, Naruto pouted. "And you don't need to worry, I'm not an asshole" he laughed.

Naruto smiled back "Good" he sighed "You're not that much like Sasuke then" he added with a grin.

Sasuke was just in front of him leaning on a tree, he grabbed a piece of branch and threw it at his head, aiming correctly.

"Usuratonkachi" Sasuke muttered.

Naruto laughed "Ouch, yeah, I kinda deserved that" he said with a smile and looking back at Sasuke, who was looking back with a squint.  
But he sighed eventually. "You're such a pain in the ass"

"But I'm _your_ pa…" he started smiling but got interrupted by a rustle not far away.

When they turned their looks to where the noise had come from, it was a zombie, slowly getting closer to them.

"Thank god is just one of them" Kakashi sighed.

"I'll take care of it" Sasuke said taking his knife out and going towards the zombie, since he was the one closest to it.

He kicked the zombie off his feet and kneeled to stab it right in the head.

"Fuck you" he muttered cleaning his knife and getting back to the group.

'Ok, he looked kinda cool' Naruto thought as he couldn't take his eyes off him, keeping a small grin on his face.

"So...you were saying?" Sasuke asked, knife still in hand, looking at Naruto with a daring look, frown.

Naruto's grin grew bigger. "That I might be a pain in the ass, but I'm your _pain_ in the ass"

Sasuke squint, sighed and rolled his eyes, putting away his knife.

"I guess you are" Sasuke sighed, leaning back on the tree, with a surprisingly small but noticeable grin on his face, or at least, Itachi noticed. Naruto just smiled back.

'This is interesting…' Itachi thought looking at the two of them, they were really getting along quite well.

"Well, do we continue?" Asuma snorted as he got up, the rest did the same.

"Yes" everyone replied.

They followed the trail a few minutes longer until they reached a road.

"Fuck" Kakashi whispered. "This is where it ends" he added.

"They could've gone up or down this road, maybe" Asuma suggested. "This must be this main road right here, the one leads to the town" he explained pointing out the road on the map. "So...since the trail was getting away from it, we could guess they had cars here and just went down that way, right?" he continued.

"That way goes south" Itachi whispered looking in that direction, Sasuke took a deep breath.

"Yes" Asume assured.

"If they had cars they could've gone back to their base, and it might be too far away to go walking" Itachi frowned.

"But too dangerous to just go by car" Sasuke added.

Asuma had his hand on his chin, thinking.

"That way there's also some empty houses and convenience stores" Kakashi said suddenly. "They could still be around there, getting gas or resting" he concluded.

"I remember that place, and it's not too far away" Naruto agreed.

"Let's go then" Asuma said.

They started walking just beside the road, between the trees, just for precaution, but eventually reached the place with no more trouble than two more zombies that Kakashi and Asuma took with their knives.

"Well, let's be careful now" Asuma said before they crossed the street. "Let's first check that first building, the convenience store and we'll move ahead from there, we stay together, if you see something say it immediately" he instructed, everyone nodded and started walking behind Asuma.

They entered carefully into the store, killed one zombie and there was really nothing else.

"Next one on the right" Asuma said heading for the front door.

They kept checking all the houses and stores one by one, not finding anything more than one more zombie, which was odd, but since the place didn't had much movement, it was only natural.

"No one's been here in a long time, uh?" Sasuke said while looking inside a bedroom in one of the houses, by the looks of the comic book collection, it used to be a kid's bedroom, Naruto was with him as well.

"We've searched this houses before" Naruto said by the bed. "It's always sad to see all this stuff" he added. "I always wonder if these people are somehow alive" Naruto muttered holding a photo of a boy with his parents.

"Who knows…" Sasuke sighed, taking another family picture, and deep inside he wished he'd had a family portrait of his parents, he looked at the picture with nostalgia.

Naruto turned to Sasuke and saw his expression, he'd never seen that face before, but it hurt. "Are you okay?" Naruto asked, looking at Sasuke across the bed.

"Can I confess something?" he whispered without taking his eyes off the picture.

"Sure, that's what friends are for…" Naruto replied, shrugging with a small smile.

"I regret not taking a family portrait before fleeing our house…" he said in a whisper closing his eyes, squeezing his eyes slightly.

But before Naruto could say anything, Asuma's voice was heard from downstairs.

"Everyone, let's get going! There's nothing here" he yelled, Sasuke opened his eyes and left the picture where it was, still with the same sad look in his eyes, and headed to the door.

But Naruto ran and stopped him in the doorway with a hand in his shoulder.

"Hey..." he said, Sasuke turned to him.

His eyes were sad, and for some crazy reason that was hurting Naruto.

"Tell me where it is, we'll go get one" Naruto whispered with an encouraging smile.

Sasuke's eyes widened and then a small smile appeared in his face while he snorted.

"Usuratonkachi" he muttered while taking Naruto's hand off his shoulder but returning the look back at him, still smiling, to just walk off downstairs right after.

'The asshole sure has fucking nice smile' he thought smiling to himself, shaking his head and following him downstairs.

"So...we're almost out of places to check, I guess no one else's here" Kakashi sighed after they had all met at the entrance.

"What's left?" Itachi asked.

"Just the old warehouse." Asuma replied.

"Let's check those and keep looking in the woods a bit more, how about that?" Kakashi proposed, everyone agreed and they headed to that last building.

That old warehouse apparently used to store any kind of numerous things for the neighborhood, because the last time they had checked, it had everything from clothes to building tools and car spare parts.

'Tell me where it is, we'll go get one...that Naruto is impossible' Sasuke sighed to himself, thinking. 'I guess he just wanted to make me smile…' he thought looking at him in the corner of his eye, just a little in front of him. 'He surely has had a weird effect on me' he laughed to himself, not letting his face show any of it. 'It's kinda fun, though, kinda feels like family again' he snorted.

"Wait" Itachi suddenly stopped, and so did the group. "Did the warehouse had that mark on the door last time you came?" he asked, pointing at the door.

A small white circle in the middle of the entrance door.

"No" Asuma replied, puzzled. "Could that be?" he asked.

"Sasuke, did the men yesterday had that same circle?" Kakashi asked, letting Sasuke see the door.

'Fuck' he said to himself. "Yes, that same one" he replied, Itachi sighed.

"Then yes, it's definitely the same group" he sighed.

"Fuck" Naruto cursed. "Now what?"

"We still don't know if they're still there" Asuma replied.

"How can we be sure?" Naruto asked.

"The warehouse has a couple of windows, we can try and look inside, if not, we can try and make some noise somewhere else to see if anyone comes out." Kakashi suggested, and since nobody had any other better idea, they agreed.

The warehouse had nothing surrounding it, except for some chopped wood and scraps. So they sneaked to the first window the could see and kneeled below it.

"I'll check" Itachi volunteer, but it was pitch black. "I can't see anything, maybe the window is blocked with something…" he whispered, kneeling back down.

They went to the next window, the only other window in that wall.

Itachi did the same thing, but it was useless, he couldn't see anything on this one either, so they decide to make some noise at the other side of the warehouse by throwing some piece of junk.

Nothing.

"It seems like no one's home" Asuma whispered.

"We might have to go and check the door…" Kakashi sighed.

"I'll go" Sasuke volunteer.

"No way in hell" Itachi sentenced.

"I was a cop, Itachi, I got this" Sasuke said, firmly and went to the door, leaving Itachi and Naruto with their hearts on their throats.

To Sasuke's surprise the door wasn't locked, he opened it slightly with his shoulder to see inside, and finally he could, it was a normal warehouse, full of dust and random stuff, but for some reasons it looked way shorter than from outside.

"Kakashi, Asuma, does the warehouse have a room or something inside? Like an inner deposit?" He asked them, they nodded. "I guess it's safe to enter then, I see nothing suspicious..."

Asuma went to the front of the row again and opened the door, no resistance, anything. Just darkness because the windows were blocked by a lot of stocked stuff.

"Yeah…I guess this shit is empty" Kakashi whispered while they tried to walk among the stuff.

"Looks like…" Asuma started but they heard a crack and he tripped over a wire, the door closed, a light bulb turned on and suddenly they could hear a door open and a lot of zombies muttering and groaning right inside the warehouse.

"Fuck! The deposit…" Asuma cursed as he stood up, everybody else got close to him. "It's a fucking trap…" he muttered and right after that, about 30 zombies roared from the deposit. "Stay together! Let's get to the door." He screamed.

The zombies started approaching quickly, they were really close and the door was completely locked, maybe from the outside, they had no choice but to try and take them all while trying to break it.

They all grabbed their knives and started killing zombies, but they got scattered, Naruto and Sasuke were in one side, Itachi was right in the middle and Asuma and Kakashi were almost at the other side of the warehouse.

Shots, stabs, groans and curses were heard for quite a few minutes, only god knows how long, but thanks to that same god they were almost out of zombies, each had one or two in front of them, they were actually gonna make it. Asuma has even managed to unlock the door and it was about to tell everyone to just run for it.

Until suddenly.

"UGH!" Naruto screamed, he had fell over some junk and a zombie was right in front of him, close to fall over him.

"Naruto!" Sasuke screamed, they were really close to each other, he finished killing the one in front of him and ran towards Naruto, putting himself between the blonde and the zombie, arm and knife in front of his face and the zombie almost fell right into it, but instead its jaw went to Sasuke's wrist and bit him.

"FUCK...DAMN YOU! DIE!" Sasuke screamed and stabbed the zombie right between the eyes, fell down the moment after, covering the bite with his hand, now he knew he was more than fucked. Why had he moved to protect him? Why?

"Sasuke! Are you okay?!" Naruto screamed getting in front of Sasuke.

The rest killed their last zombies, Asuma even had opened the door, it was all done, but when they saw Sasuke on the floor they ran towards the two of them.

"I…" Sasuke muttered, looked up and saw Naruto a couple of centimeters away, touching his shoulder and the rest behind him.

"Sasuke!" Itachi exclaimed again.

He looked at them, looked back at his arm and uncovered the bite.

There was a moment of silence.

'No, no...not Sasuke' Itachi whispered scared to himself.

"The hell I'm gonna let you turn…" Naruto muttered suddenly, Itachi was in shock. "Listen to me, asshole" he took Sasuke's face between his hands and made him look directly into his own eyes. "You'll make it, it's gonna hurt like one thousand hells, but you'll make it, I ain't gonna let you turn, do you hear me?" he exclaimed frowning, scared, but sure of himself.

Sasuke couldn't speak, he was in shock, he didn't want to die, but he felt safe when he met Naruto's eyes.

"Asuma, grab his arm, Itachi, hold him…" Naruto ordered, and they did as told, Itachi embraced Sasuke, leaving the arm Asuma was holding out. "Kakashi…" Naruto looked at the man, lending his hand, Kakashi nodded and gave him his machete, the biggest they had.

"I'll go find a car, I saw one by the convenience store" Kakashi said, running outside.

"What the hell are you planning, usura…" he shut up when he saw the weapon.

"Sorry but...this is how you make it, asshole" he said, nervously, but the fear of losing him was actually far worse than the one of doing this.

Sasuke's eyes widened but closed them right away tightly while hiding his face in his brother's chest, who embraced him with more strength. Asuma was holding his arm tight and tense.

Naruto raised the machete, put it above Sasuke's elbow, halfway to his shoulder, took a deep breath, raised it again and waved it down, cutting the Uchiha's arm off.

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Sasuke's scream filled the warehouse like a ghostly cry. Naruto quickly took his shirt and belt off and improvised a tourniquet around the wound. "YOU BASTARD!" he screamed, he was losing a lot of blood.

"Sorry, Sasuke...but I'm not losing you" he said while, together with Itachi, helped him stand up, supporting him with their shoulders. "Come on!" he exclaimed walking, feeling the blood from Sasuke's wound on his back.

Itachi grabbed his radio as he walked with Naruto towards the exit.

"HOSPITAL! SAKURA! DO YOU COPY?!" Itachi screamed at the radio.

" _I copy! Itachi, what happened?!_ " Sakura answered.

"Emergency, Sasuke got bit, we need to have everything ready, we're heading back there on a car" he explained as quickly as he could.

" _Oh dear god, I'll have everything ready, keep pressure on the wound as long as you can!_ " she replied and that was it.

They ran outside, Sasuke was close to fainting, both because of the pain and the blood loss.

"Hang in there, Sasuke, we'll be there right away, just hang in there" Itachi repeated to his brother as, luckily, Kakashi had found a car and was waiting just outside, they got in at the back, Kakashi and Asuma at the front. Naruto and Itachi lied Sasuke on his back, head towards Itachi, who was putting pressure on the wound, trying to ignore his brother's twitches of pain. "Hang in there, you'll be fine, Sasuke, you'll be fine, just stay with us, keep your eyes open"

Sasuke could barely see what was in front of him, he felt dizzy, scared and hopeless. He really didn't want to die, not like that. He was seeing all blurry, the only things that made sense was the pain, his brother's voice and…

"Sasuke!" Naruto yelled, looking directly at him.

...and Naruto's voice, to his surprise, his voice was as loud and clear as his brother's.

"Stay with us, you can do it" he said panting, scared as fuck. "Remember I said we were gonna get that family portrait, we still have to do that" he kept yelling, his voice trembling, but he had to keep talking. "You can't leave me like this, who's gonna be my partner at the watch then?" he continued, Sasuke was still kinda conscious, he had to keep going. "We still have a lot to talk about, even if you don't want to" he kept going. "You'll make it out of this but you have to stay awake, stay with us" Sasuke was starting to lose conscious.

"Usura…" he whispered, almost losing it.

He could hear their voices fade in the background, was this it? Is this how he was going to die?

"...tonkachi" he finished before everything just turned black.

"NO! Sasuke! Wake up, please wake up!" Itachi exclaimed "Don't do this...don't give up" he muttered, almost crying.

Naruto checked for pulse.

"There's still pulse, we can make it…" he said, Itachi never stopped the pressure on the wound, embracing his young brother, his reason to keep going, wishing from the bottom of his heart not to lose him too.

"We're here!" Asuma yelled when they were at the gates, Shikamaru was letting them in already.

"Here comes Sakura!" Itachi yelled at the sight of the pink haired girl with a stretcher.

Naruto and Itachi carried the unconscious Sasuke out of the car and onto the stretcher.

"Oh my god…" she muttered as they laid him down.

Everyone was looking, everyone was almost at tears with the scene.

"Let's go!" Sakura exclaimed taking the stretcher to the hospital.

Naruto and Itachi ran with her.

As soon as they got to the hospital, Konan and other volunteers were waiting and took the stretcher inside.

"Sorry guys...can't have you inside with this, I'll come out and tell you when we're done, so sorry, Itachi" she muttered before going inside.

"But Saku…" Itachi tried to complain but Sakura shut the door immediately, he fell to his knees in front of the hospital. "Sasuke…" he muttered in tears.

Naruto was just behind him, in shock, almost in tears as well. 'You better make it, asshole'' he wished in thoughts, he had never been so scared in his life, he had never been so scared of losing someone.

"Fuck…" Itachi whispered, and stayed there with his face in his hands, trembling.

"Naruto! Oh, my boy, thank god!" Naruto's mom was crying as she ran towards him and gave him a big hug. "Thank god you're okay" she whispered. "What about Sasuke?...What happened?" she asked, worried.

"He…" Naruto let go of his mother's hug and looked to the ground. "He got bit protecting me…" he whispered, tears filling his eyes, the guilt and uselessness he felt at that moment were greater than ever.

Itachi raised his head after hearing that.

"Sorry?" Itachi asked, getting closer to Naruto, drying his tears. "Sasuke was...protecting you?" he asked again, in shock, not believing what he was hearing.

Naruto looked at Itachi, embarrassed.

"Yeah, I fell over something, a zombie was about to get to me and…" he looked back to the ground. "He just put himself in the middle" added turning his eyes back to Itachi.

Itachi was surprised, Sasuke had never done that for someone, only for his family, why had he done that with Naruto? Maybe he was more than a watch partner, was Sasuke finally getting a friend? A true friend?

"Sorry, Itachi" he apologized.

"Hey, it's not your fault, Naruto" he assured him with a hand on his shoulder. "It's not your fault"

Suddenly the hospital door opened and Sakura was out, Itachi and Naruto ran towards her right away.

"So?" Itachi asked, Sakura was taking her blood stained gloves off.

"He's stable" she replied with a little smile.

Itachi and Naruto sighed in relief.

"Thank you…" Itachi muttered and gave Sakura a big and tight hug.

"It's my job and my pleasure" she replied breaking away from the hug and smiling at him, she was so glad he was okay, though.

"When can we see him?" Naruto asked, still worried.

"In a couple of hours, Konan is still finishing with him and he'll be in a lot of drugs, I don't know how long he'll take to wake up, but as soon as everything's settled, I'll call you" she replied. "So, you can go and take a shower, rest, eat something and then come back, how about that?" she suggested.

"I…" Itachi started, doubtful.

"Go, please" Sakura insisted. "I'll take care of him" she assured him, taking his hand.

"Thank you, Sakura" Itachi thanked with a smile.

She shook her head "No worries" she smiled "A glass of wine and we'll be even" she proposed laughing.

Itachi smiled widely. "Deal"

Sakura winked at him.

"Now, go to rest, both of you" she said looking at Naruto as well, he laughed nervously. "Come back after you've taken a shower and ate, got it?" she sentenced.

"Understood" Itachi replied with a smile. "Let's go, Naruto" he said, letting go of Sakura's hand.

 **Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

 **May 25** **th** **, 1:00 pm / Hospital**

Naruto and Itachi sat on the bench outside of the hospital, waiting for Sakura to tell them if they could finally see Sasuke.

"Naruto" Itachi said suddenly, Naruto turned to him.

"Yes?"

"I'm gonna say something weird, please spare me" he sighed with a smile, Naruto raised an eyebrow in confusion. "It kinda made me happy to know that the reason Sasuke got hurt was to protect you" he said, looking back at Naruto.

"What?! Why?! I chopped his arm off!" Naruto exclaimed, even more confused.

Itachi just laughed.

"Yeah, he's gonna be furious when he wakes up" he continued laughing. "But the reason I was happy is because...you know, he had never done anything like that for someone that wasn't me or our parents" he explained, smiling softly, Naruto widened his eyes in surprise.

"Really?" he asked.

"Yeah" he snorted "I think Sasuke cares more about you than I thought, and the fact that he actually has a someone he cares about, a friend, is...it just made me happy" he continued, looking at the horizon. "Because I might not be here forever, and I wouldn't want for him to be alone" he kept going. "Just, thank you for being his friend" he finished, finally looking at Naruto.

"It hasn't been easy, I'll tell you that" Naruto joked and Itachi burst with laughter, first time he saw him laughing like that.

"I bet it hasn't" he added.

"But I like him" Naruto continued. "He acts like an asshole but…" Itachi snorted at that comment "I think he has a good heart" he added smiling.

"He does…" Itachi sighed.

And in that precise moment, the hospital door opened.

"Guys!" Sakura called, they ran to her. "You can see him" she said and let them in.

Sasuke was in a bed at the end of the room, surrounded by a couple of more beds, semi-sitting, asleep and with an intravenous line on his hand. They rushed to him.

"He's still asleep, we gave him strong sedatives for the pain so he might sleep for a couple more hours. He needed a lot of blood, thankfully we have a good stock" Sakura explained, Itachi was at the end of the bed and Naruto had grabbed a stool that was nearby and sat next to him. "He's also on strong antibiotics trough that intravenous so he might not feel that good, just a heads up" she shrugged.

"Thanks, again, tell that to the team as well, please" Itachi thanked, yet again.

"Will do" she replied. "I'll leave you with him then, have to do a couple of errands" she said while turning around, but something stopped her.

"Wait" Itachi called, she turned back.

"Yes?"

"How about tomorrow we have that glass of wine?" he proposed, she blushed but smiled.

"Sure thing" she replied with a shy smile. "See you later then" she started walking backwards. "See you too, Naruto" she added looking at her friend.

"See you" he waved goodbye, but immediately squint his eyes to Itachi, who noticed right away and laughed.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"You hurt her, and you'll regret it" he threatened him with the same expression, Itachi raised an eyebrow, still smiling.

"I know" he replied softening his face. "Oh but, you don't...you know…" Itachi asked, kinda nervous. "Like her too or anything, right?" he asked, just in case.

Naruto laughed. "No, no, at all, she's like a sister" he replied. "I love her, but not that way" shaking his head.

"Good" Itachi sighed with relief. "For a second it seemed logical" he smiled.

There was a moment of silence and Kakashi entered the hospital.

"Hey, guys" he greeted them. "How's Sasuke?"

"He's stable, we're just waiting for the sedatives to wear off" Itachi replied.

"That's great, I'm glad" he sighed. "Sorry but we kinda need you at headquarters" he said with a hand on his back neck. "We're gonna have a meeting about this and…" he started a bit ashamed, he didn't want to make them leave Sasuke's side.

"It's okay, but, can Naruto stay?" Itachi interrupted.

Naruto looked puzzled.

"Why?" he asked.

"Just in case Sasuke wakes up, I don't want him to be alone" Itachi said with a soft smile. "Is that okay, Kakashi?" he asked.

"Sure, of course" Kakashi agreed, Itachi was the most important of those two anyway.

"Thanks, Kakashi" Itachi thanked. "I'll be back soon, Naruto" he said going with Itachi. "Thanks" he added, Naruto nodded as a 'don't worry', and they left the hospital.

Naruto stayed in the stool, crossing his arms above the bed, on the left side, where Sasuke's wound was, without taking his eyes off him.

'He's gonna be so pissed' Naruto laughed to himself while taking a quick look at the bandaged wound, in which you could still see a bit of blood. 'I wonder if he really considers me his friend…' he wondered looking at his face. 'I guess I'll have to trust Itachi's words' he smiled, he couldn't take his eyes off Sasuke, and for a moment, the soft smile he had given to him earlier came to his mind, making him smile even bigger. 'I'll admit it, you're kinda dangerously handsome, asshole' he shook the image out of his head, and rested it on his arms.

A few minutes later, without noticing, Naruto fell asleep.

 **Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

 **May 25** **th** **, 7:00 pm / Hospital**

Sasuke was starting to feel his body, but saw nothing but pitch dark, was he alive? was he dead? No, he wasn't dead, he could feel his body, he could feel his breath, he could feel fabric against his skin, he was dizzy, but something told him he had to try and open his eyes, he had to make sure he was alive.

And slowly he could finally open his eyes, just a little, he still saw everything blurry, he tried to focus, failed a couple of times, but managed to do so eventually.

'Hospital?' he asked himself when he could finally see. 'Am I in the hospital?' he asked again. He tried to open his eyes a little further.

'Yes...this is the hospital…' he confirmed. 'I am alive' he sighed to himself, relieved, he had made it.

'Wait…' he had suddenly noticed a yellowish thing on his bed. 'Naruto?' he asked looking down at it, it was indeed Naruto's hair. How long had he been there? How long was he out?

He tried to speak, but it was useless, he tried then to clear his throat, it was dry as hell, useless again. He frowned, frustrated that he could not speak yet, so he moved one of his legs to give Naruto a little push.

"Wha…" Naruto raised his head, disoriented, he rubbed his eyes a little and moved his head towards Sasuke, he was awake.

"Usu...raton..kachi" he muttered, his voice was a bit broken.

"You're awake!" he stood up with a smile.

"How long?" he asked.

"A few hours" Naruto replied. "How do you feel?" he asked.

"I don't know" Sasuke sighed.

"Here, some water, you sound horrible" Naruto smiled and grabbed a glass of water from the table next to the bed.

"God...thanks" Sasuke sighed taking the glass with his other arm, drinking it completely with a single sip. "Ah, so much better" he sighed after finishing, his voice finally sounded a bit more normal. "Where's Itachi?" he asked.

"In a meeting, he should be back soon" Naruto replied.

"Why are you here?" Sasuke asked again, Naruto frowned a little.

"Itachi asked to be here in case you woke up" he replied. "And honestly, I wanted to be here" he added, with a tiny smile.

"Why?" Sasuke frowned softly.

"Um...you kinda saved my life" Naruto replied raising an eyebrow. "Asshole"

Sasuke snorted, and a hint of smile appeared on his lips.

"Why did you do it?" Naruto asked.

"Ugh…" Sasuke sighed. "I don't know, okay?" Sasuke replied. "My body just reacted like that" he added.

Naruto sighed with a smile.

"Thanks anyway…" he thanked with a smile. "I owe you one"

"I remind you that you chopped my fucking arm off, dumbass" Sasuke hissed frowning. "We're fucking even"

Naruto just laughed.

"Yeah, sorry about that but…" Naruto started saying with a smile but Sasuke interrupted.

"I know, I know, it was the only fucking way" Sasuke sighed. "Too bad it was my good arm" he sighed with a smile, lifting his right arm and looking at it. "I guess I'll have to learn how to shoot with you" he said to his right hand.

"Hey" Naruto said suddenly, and put his left hand on top of Sasuke's, he looked at him. "I'll help" he said smiling widely.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow and removed his hand from where it was right away. "Stay the fuck away from my limbs, usuratonkachi" Sasuke hissed frowning, Naruto laughed.

"Yeah, yeah, sorry" he kept laughing. "I'm glad you made it" he confessed suddenly, Sasuke erased his frown. "I'd have no one to annoy without you" and Sasuke's frown was back.

"Now I regret it" Sasuke sighed, Naruto laughed.

"But seriously, I think I'd had missed you like hell" he confessed with a soft smile.

Sasuke looked at Naruto for a couple of seconds before sighing and resting his head on the pillow.

"You're a dumbass" he said with his eyes closed.

"Oh, come on! You'd miss me too!" he laughed with a playful tone.

Sasuke snorted, "At all".

"Lies!" Naruto snorted as well. Sasuke opened his eyes to him, he was smiling with pride.

A soft and almost undetectable smile shaped his lips and an eyebrow raised.

"Usuratonkachi" he sighed, lowering his eyebrow but without erasing the smile, Naruto replied with the biggest smile ever.

"That's what I'd miss the most" Naruto laughed, Sasuke's smile grew soft.

"You're such a fucking dumbass" Sasuke sighed.

'With a stupid ass smile' he thought to himself. He had to admit that Naruto had an amazing smile and it was the only thing about him that couldn't annoy him.

After that they heard the door opening, it was Itachi.

"Itachi" Sasuke whispered when he looked at his brother at the door.

"Sasuke...thank god" he said smiling as he approached the bed. "How do you feel?" he asked him when reaching the other side of the bed.

"I feel almost nothing, I think the painkillers are working quite well" Sasuke replied. "I'm a bit dizzy though" he added.

"Sakura said you might feel like that, it's the antibiotics" Itachi shrugged.

"Hate them" Sasuke sighed.

Itachi smiled, lift his left arm and put his hand on Sasuke's head, his brother's eyes widened in surprise, Itachi moved his hand almost to Sasuke's back neck and got closer to him.

"I thought I had lost you" he said with a soft voice and a worried face.

Sasuke expression softened and now he looked peaceful.

"Me too" he replied.

"Don't ever do that to me again, understood? I can't afford to lose you" Itachi sighed with a smile.

Sasuke snorted and smiled back at his older brother.

"Promise" Sasuke replied with the same smile.

'Dangerously handsome bastard' Naruto sighed to himself. For a moment he felt out of place in that scene of brotherly love but, fuck it, he had never seen Sasuke smiling like that.

"That's my little brother!" Itachi laughed messing with Sasuke's hair.

"Motherfu…" Sasuke complained trying to move away but he immediately felt a trace of the wound's pain. "Fuck" he twitched.

"Don't move so quickly" Itachi scolded him.

"Bastard" Sasuke muttered, his brother just laughed.

"Sasuke!" Sakura had just arrived. "How are you feeling?" she asked as soon as she arrived to the end of the bed.

"A bit dizzy, but not in pain" he replied. "Thanks" he added.

"Our pleasure!" she replied with a big smile. "I wanted to see if you were awake, are you hungry? You need to eat for those antibiotics to take effect" she said with a scolding smile.

Sasuke frowned. "Not really, but I guess I could eat…" he replied.

"Good! I'll bring dinner for everyone then" she said going out.

"I'll help you!" Naruto exclaimed rushing to her.

"So...little brother" Itachi said suddenly right after Sakura and Naruto left the hospital.

"Let me guess, you want to know why I did what I did, right?" he asked with a sigh.

"Of course" Itachi replied.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "I already told Naruto, my body just moved, okay?" he replied.

Itachi seemed thoughtful. "Why is it that I don't believe you?" he said crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"I hate you so much right now" Sasuke sighed. "What do you want me to say, Itachi? I care about that fucking dumbass" he exclaimed, a bit pissed that his brother always could get his truth feelings out of him. "I didn't want to lose anyone else" he added. "It's that stupid smile's fault…" he muttered to himself.

"Excuse me?" Itachi asked. 'Did he really said it was his smile's fault?' he thought to himself, he had to admit it, hopeful.

"Nothing" Sasuke said, avoiding his brother's look, he realized what he had said and thanked god his brother didn't get it.

Itachi was about to speak again when Sakura and Naruto had returned.

"Sakura, can I stay overnight here?" Itachi asked when they were finished their food.

"Ugh, you don't have to do that" Sasuke hissed.

"But I want to…" Itachi sentenced, marking each word very clearly.

Sakura laughed. "Sure, you can use any of the beds here, there are no patients right now so it's okay." she replied.

"Thanks" he smiled. "Here, let me help you clean these dishes" he said standing up as she was doing the same.

They at the front of the hospital in a small improvised kitchen, cleaning everything when they heard Naruto asking Sasuke.

"Can I stay too?!" Naruto asked with excitement.

"No way" Sasuke replied immediately.

"C'mon! I saved your life!" Naruto complained pouting.

"And I saved yours, we said we were even!" Sasuke exclaimed, pissed off, but having a bit of fun.

"Ugh, you never let me do fun things with you!" Naruto complained even more, standing up in frustration.

"Because your ideas of fun is to annoy me, usuratonkachi!" Sasuke snorted angry.

"They're not! You just get annoyed too easy because you're an asshole!"

Meanwhile their fight continued, Itachi and Sakura were listening to everything from the kitchen and laughing their asses off.

"I can't believe they're really fighting already" she sighed.

"Tell you a secret?" whispered Itachi getting a bit closer to her.

"What?"

"I'm kinda rooting for those two" he confessed with a playful smile.

Sakura snorted. "Me too!" she replied excited. "They'd so look cute together!" she smiled playfully.

"But is Naruto...you know?" Itachi asked doubtful, he knew his little brother was gay, but didn't know about the blonde.

"Gay? Yes!" She replied nodding. "Sasuke too, right?"

"How do you know?" Itachi raised an eyebrow.

"He told Naruto, Naruto told me" she explained shrugging.

"Amazing" Itachi snorted. "Another question, though" Itachi began, looking nervous.

"What?" she asked.

"Is there someone else you're rooting for?" he asked with a soft smile, she blushed immediately.

"Oh, well, I, don't know, I…" she started stuttering going back to drying the dishes avoiding his eyes, he snorted amused.

"Not us then?" he asked playfully with his heart on his throat, putting Sakura's hair behind her ear, she twitched at his touched and blushed even more, but smiled, looking back at him.

"A little…" she whispered, they got a bit closer together.

"ITACHI! Sasuke is being a pain in the ass again!" they heard Naruto screaming from the back, Itachi rolled his eyes, Sakura laughed.

"You better go before Sasuke chops Naruto's arm off in revenge" Sakura laughed, Itachi followed.

"We'll continue this tomorrow with that glass of wine, how about that?" he proposed with a smile.

"It's a date" she laughed with her face as red as it could be.

"Awesome" Itachi whispered. "But before I go…" he added and bent down to her and kissed her gently, she replied caressing his cheek with one of her hands.

"Itachiiiiiii" Naruto screamed again, they broke their kiss.

"Go" Sakura laughed, Itachi sighed.

"Tomorrow, wine" he repeated as he left the space, she nodded with a big smile.

"Ok, stop it, both of you!" he scolded them both as he approached the bed.

Sasuke let go of Naruto's hair, which he was pulling as Naruto laughed.

Itachi did the impossible and managed to Naruto to go back home, Sakura went short after and they could finally sleep at peace, after this long and tiresome day.


	3. Logbook 3: Developing

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

 **May 30** **th** **, 7:00 am / Headquarters**

"The night watch hasn't seen anything yet?" Minato was asking Nagato.

"Maybe they know we noticed them and are planning something" Tsunade muttered, worried. "That trap wasn't there for nothing"

"So we're supposed to just sit here and wait?" Shikamaru asked, frustrated.

"For the time being…" Tsunade sighed. "We cannot risk more missions like that and fall into another trap like that" she explained. "We don't need any more people losing their limbs or dying" she finished.

"She's right" Itachi didn't want to give up looking for them, but it was too risky to go out there that way.

"Let's just stay alert, check the walls to see if there's any place that need reinforcement. And be extra careful in the next scavenger mission" Tsunade ordered. "Understood?"

There was some seconds of silence, nobody liked the idea, but there wasn't much they could do.

"Understood"

 **Two weeks later:**

 **June 14** **h** **, 8:30 am / Sasuke logbook**

"Morning, Sasuke!" Itachi greeted him as he walked down the stairs of their house.

"Morning" he replied.

Waking up in the morning was weird. They were not taking the night shift so Sasuke could have time to practice shooting with his right arm. Giving that was his only choice. Besides, Naruto volunteered to help. He insisted so much on doing it that Sasuke agreed just to make him stop.

Yet, a part of Sasuke was glad that Naruto was always there. He had even started to care for him, and genuinely thinking of him as a friend, he'd even dare to call him best friend. He was annoying, yes, but he also cared and listened. Always making the effort to understand him and have his back. That was something he wasn't use to receiving outside his brother. But Naruto was so stubborn that it was impossible not to get fond of him.

It was the first time he would rather be with Naruto than by himself, most of the times at least. It was nice every time he could see that stupid smile of his, and even better when the dork could get him to smile.

"You going to sleep?" Sasuke asked Itachi, who now had taken his place in the night watch until he was ready.

"Yup, I'm dead" he replied with a smile, waving goodbye and heading upstairs.

He saw his brother go up, sighed and heard a knock on the door.

"Uchiha!" said Naruto's voice from the other side of the door.

'So fucking early and he's full of energy…' he sighed to himself, rolling his eyes.

"Morning, usuratonkachi" he greeted while opening the door.

"Morning, asshole!" he replied with a big smile.

Sasuke frowned. "Do you really need to start with the 'asshole' shit so early?" he asked.

"Yes!" Naruto replied with a grin.

He sighed. "Fine, come on. I need to go to the hospital first" he said walking out to the street.

"Oh, right! Is check up day!" Naruto exclaimed following him. "How's that doing?" he asked pointing the wound with his eyes.

"Same, this week hasn't hurt that much though" he said looking at what was left of his arm.

"Awesome!" Naruto replied with a smile, still feeling a little bad about the whole thing. That made his smile go right away.

"How many times do I have to tell you, usuratonkachi? To stop feeling bad about the fucking arm thing" Sasuke sighed, rolling his eyes.

"Try chopping someone's arm off then and see how you feel!" Naruto replied crossing his arms, pouting.

"How about yours then, and we'd be fucking even!" he came back frowning.

"Gosh, stop fighting, you two!"

They had arrived at the hospital without even noticing. Sakura was standing on the entrance with a scolding look in her face.

They pouted at each other, Sasuke snorted and went inside the hospital.

"Naruto…" Sakura said, crossing her arms, he sighed and followed.

"So, how was the first week out of hospital, Sasuke?" she asked him with a softer expression.

"Fine, it hasn't hurt that much" he replied.

"I'm glad! I wish we could give you as many painkillers as you'd need but…" she started but Sasuke interrupted her.

"I understand, it's a miracle you had some to give me in the first place" he said shaking his head, she smiled.

"He's a tough asshole, after all" Naruto laughed, Sasuke squinted at him.

"Anyway, could I see?" she asked with the same smile.

"Sure" he replied sitting on the bed behind him and taking his shirt off and then the harness.

"Thanks" she said getting close to the stump. "Have you been able to put the harness by yourself?" she asked.

"Yeah, did it yesterday with no problem" he replied looking at her.

She snorted. "Tough, indeed" she added, he sighed, Naruto just laughed. "Does it hurt if I do this?" she asked while putting her hand behind on the inner side of the stump and moving it up.

Sasuke twitched.

"A little" he replied, she let go.

"Sorry" she added. "I think it might be a week or so more to stop using the harness" she explained. "Does it ever hurt if you're using it? How about at practice?" she asked.

"No, at all" he replied.

"Well, I wanna see you here next tuesday to see how's it going then. Now, let's just see that cicatrization" carefully taking the cotton sleeve on the stump. "Have you been sleeping without it?" she asked.

"Yeah"

"Awesome, it's perfectly healed already…" she said with a smile. "You'll have to use this if you have the harness on, though" she explained, putting it back on.

"No problem" he replied.

"You're such a good patient" she smiled while Sasuke put the harness and the shirt back on. "Unlike somebody else I'm not mentioning…" she said rolling her eyes to Naruto.

Sasuke snorted with a grin. "That I don't doubt" he sighed.

"Hey! I'm not a bad patient!" Naruto complained.

"Naruto, your ability to stay in bed for more than one day is zero" Sakura laughed. "Remember that time you broke your leg…" she added.

Naruto pouted, Sasuke was just enjoying himself.

"That was just one time…" he muttered.

"And once was enough for me" she sighed with a smile.

Sasuke laughed, Sakura was surprised, she had never heard his laughter.

"Come on, usuratonkachi, we need to get to practice" he sighed while still smiling.

Naruto had his arms crossed and pouted expression, but still sighed and stood up.

"Thanks, Sakura" Sasuke added.

"No problem, good luck at practice" she replied.

"See you, Sakura" Naruto waved goodbye, taking his tongue out to her, she laughed back.

"See you…" she laughed, they stepped out of the hospital and hear her voice again, laughing. "Usuratonkachi!" she laughed.

"Please, not you too!" Naruto yelled complaining, Sasuke laughed.

She waved goodbye with a smile and closed the doors.

"Can't believe this…" Naruto sighed. "This is your fault, asshole" he pouted.

"I regret nothing, it's too much fun" he sighed with a grin.

"Asshole" he repeated, starting to show a small grin on his face.

Sasuke snorted.

"Let's just go, dumbass" he sighed getting ahead.

 **June 14** **h** **, 3:00 pm / Headquarters logbook**

"Here Minato, anyone copy?" those words burst out of the headquarters office's radio.

"Yes, Minato" Tsunade answered.

"Great…" he sighed. "I'm on my shift and there's a woman outside the door asking for help. She looks tired, nothing on herself but clothes, also like she's been lost on the woods or something" he explained.

A woman was right in front of the door, knocking on the metal wall to get someone's attention, tears in her eyes.

"Holy shit..." Tsunade sighed.

"...they'll kill me if they find me...please" she cried with her forehead against the wall.

"Did you hear that?" Minato asked, he had put the radio close so Tsunade could hear.

"How do we know if we can trust her?" Another voice muttered in the radio, it was Nagato.

"There's no way of knowing" Tsunade added.

"We can't leave her outside like that…" He knew it was risky, but leaving her outside was not right either.

"Minato's right" Tsunade agreed.

"But…" Nagato started on the radio, but Tsunade spoke right after.

"We'll be extra careful" she said. "Don't let her see Itachi or Sasuke, open the door and bring her right to the headquarters, I'll be waiting"

"Understood" Minato replied.

 **June 14** **h** **, 3:10pm / Gate 4 / Minato**

Minato rushed down and opened the door slightly and pushed his head outside.

"Hey, miss…" he called at her, the woman raised her head to him, shocked. "Come in" he said and the girl walked slowly towards him, scared and shy. Minato extended his hand to her, she took her and Minato could finally pushed her inside.

"Thank you… thank you" she repeated with tears in her eyes. As soon as they were inside he locked the door and tied her wrists together with a plastic band seal as tight as he could.

She looked at him shocked.

"Sorry, this is just a safety measure, our chief will talk to you" he explained as calm as possible.

She gave a nervous nod and put no resistance.

He arrived to the headquarters without any problem. Tsunade, Nagato, Shikamaru and Kakashi were there already.

Minato sat her on the chair in front of the rest.

"Shikamaru, please release her" she asked. The man did as asked, took a pair of scissors and cut the plastic band. "Do you want water?" she offered the woman, she nodded and took the glass the blond was handing to her.

The woman was shaking. Her clothes were dirty and dragged. A pair of old jeans, white t-shirt, a simple pair of sneakers, and her hair was tied in a messed up ponytail. Her hair was also long and white, much like Kakashi's. She had pretty and fine features, big light blue eyes with thick eyebrows, thin lips and thin nose.

"Tell us, what's your name?" Tsunade asked calmly.

The woman took a deep breath, still shaking out of fear.

"My…" cough "My name is Kaguya..." she replied with a soft but deep voice, like Tsunade's.

"How did you get to this place?" Nagato asked with his arms crossed.

"I don't know, I've been walking through the woods for days" she replied shaking her head, tears in her eyes.

"Why?" Tsunade asked.

"And where are your things? It's hard to believe you were out there without at least a knife" Kakashi asked, skeptical.

The woman dried her eyes for the third time while taking a deep breath.

"I escaped from somewhere…" she replied, everyone gasped.

'Could it be…?' Minato asked himself in his thoughts.

"Explain" Nagato asked, worried.

"I found a place, just like this one…" she started, but the hiccups from the crying stopped her. "...and they had zombies gathered in rooms..." she continued. "They said they were gonna prepare me to meet god and free me from sin…" she cried. "They put me on a locked room with two other people…"

Everyone was looking at each other with caution, shocked by this coincidence.

"The next day they took us to some weird church"

Hiccup.

"Soon I realized they were just gonna kill us to make us turn into…" she sobbed. "One of those horrible things"

Hiccup.

"I panicked, knocked the guy that was holding me and ran...I just ran" she explained. "I ran to the woods and stayed hidden until they stopped looking for me..." the crying wasn't letting her talk properly.

"Here…" Minato said handing her a handkerchief, she took it and dried her eyes.

"It's okay" Tsunade sighed. "Take your time"

"They might still be looking for you" Nagato added.

"I'm so sorry…" she apologized.

'We can't tell her about Sasuke and Itachi yet' Nagato thought to himself. He was sure that everyone else felt the same way.

"Tell you what, we'll take you to a room, give you some new clothes and let you rest" Tsunade began. "You'll have someone keeping an eye on you the entire time though" Kaguya finally looked up to her. "And we can speak again later, so you're more calm"

She nodded. "That's so kind of you…" she sobbed.

"Nagato. Take her to the empty house, I'll have someone take clothes and food to her" Tsunade instructed. "I'll also send someone to check on her"

"Understood" he nodded and took the woman by the arm and led her out of the headquarters.

Everyone sighed as they left.

"What the fuck is happening" Shikamaru muttered.

"Shikamaru, could you please get Kisame? I know it's his shift but…" Tsunade asked the young man, he agreed with a sighed 'yes ma'am' and left the house.

"What should we do?" Minato sighed, there were only Kakashi, Tsunade and himself left.

"I don't know…" Tsunade sighed.

"Maybe we should ask Itachi or Sasuke to talk to her" Kakashi proposed.

Tsunade and Minato looked at him with doubt.

"Kakashi I…" Minato started but he interrupted.

"There's a chance they might recognize her." he explained "For good or worse." the others knew what he meant by that.

"You're right" Tsunade nodded. "We'll do that later...for the time being, we'll let her rest. Kisame will keep an eye on her, and nobody sees her" she ordered.

 **June 14** **h** **, 6:00pm / Sasuke logbook**

"I'll admit it, you looked cool with that thing" Naruto laughed as he shrugged. They were having a small snack on the porch of his house.

Nagato gave Sasuke an old japanese straight sword, in an attempt of finding a better weapon for him. Given that sometime fire guns were proving to be troublesome at loading.

Sasuke snorted. "It's just a sword" he sighed.

"Are you kidding?! Swords to fight zombies are the most awesome thing ever!" Naruto almost yelled in surprise.

"Don't yell, usuratonkachi" he sighed frowning.

Naruto laughed. "Sorry"

Sasuke rolled his eyes with a smile.

"You dumbass" he sighed.

"Sasuke" Itachi's voice suddenly interrupted them.

They looked at the older brother immediately, he had a serious look on his face.

"Something happened?" Sasuke asked, worried.

"Tsunade needs to speak to us it's…" he lowered his sight quickly and looked back up. "Important"

His voice sounded nervous, that scared the shit out of Sasuke.

"Fuck" he muttered getting up from the bench he and Naruto were sitting in.

"Can I go?" Naruto asked, worried.

"Sorry, Naruto, Tsunade said just me and Sasuke" Itachi replied shrugging.

"I'll tell you everything later, okay?" Sasuke added as he stepped down the stairs.

Naruto nodded at his friend as he saw them walk away.

Sasuke wanted to ask what was wrong, but he knew Itachi wouldn't say anything until they arrived.

"Thank you for coming, boys" Tsunade greeted them as they entered the room. She was sitting on her usual big chair. The look on her face was worrying.

Sasuke and Itachi shook their heads and sat in front of her, in the couch.

"There's no simple way of putting this" she began. "Earlier today a woman appeared in gate 4. Minato heard her crying for help." the brothers looked puzzled, what had this to do specifically with them.

"I allowed Minato to let her in because she insisted they were going to find her and kill her" she explained. "Something was off" she sighed. "And when we finally got to talk to her and ask her how she had gotten here…" took a deep breath. "Based on what she said, we strongly believe she escaped from the same lunatics you guys did." she finished, they both gasped.

"I want you to talk to her" she asked. "Maybe you can recognize her, maybe she's one of them, maybe she's one of the group you used to be in" she added.

"What's her name?" Itachi asked, confused and scared.

"Kaguya"

"No...there was no one on our old group with that name…" Itachi replied, shaking his head.

"Then we need you to check if she's not one of them trying to set up a trap again" she explained.

"We'll do our best" Itachi replied.

Sasuke was anxious, he had just began to recover and they were on their heels already. It was an unsettling feeling.

"Come with me" she asked standing up and going out, they followed.

Tsunade guided them to the last house down the street, then outside of a bedroom on the upper floor.

Itachi put a hand on his brother's shoulder for support, they were both really anxious.

She knocked on the door three times and Kisame opened and they went in.

The woman was sitting on the bed with her hands in handcuffs. She looked well rested and relaxed.

"Hello, Kaguya" Tsunade greeted.

"Hi" she replied almost in a whisper.

"How are you?" she asked.

"I'm better, thanks" she replied shrugging.

"Sorry about the handcuffs, it's just for safety" Tsunade explained, she shook her head.

"I understand"

"I brought two people that need to talk to you." she began "Kaguya, these are Itachi and Sasuke, I believe they escaped from the same place as you did." she said introducing the two brothers.

Her eyes widened after finally seeing them.

"You did?" she asked.

"You tell us" Itachi said, she looked tense, Itachi could be intimidating if he wanted to. "Did you see any white circles there?" he asked, she gasped.

"Yes, they were all over the place, even on their clothes" she replied nodding.

The brothers looked at each other.

"Then yes, we escaped the same place" Itachi said with a sigh. "Over a month ago" he added.

"You?" Sasuke asked.

"I think it's only been a week…" she replied looking down.

Itachi and Sasuke looked at each other, thoughtful.

"Were you alone there?" Sasuke asked.

"No, but I'm the only one that got out...I think" she replied.

Sasuke sighed.

"Could we talk outside?" Sasuke asked Tsunade.

"Sure, I'll be back soon, Kaguya." she said before leaving with the two brothers, letting Kisame in again.

"So, what do you think?" Tsunade asked crossing her arms over her chest.

"The only thing I'm sure about is that I don't remember her face when we were captured…" Itachi began with a sigh.

"I don't either" Sasuke replied, shrugging.

"You think we can trust her?" she asked.

"She seems harmless. I don't get how she was able to escape those fuckers, though, looking so inoffensive." Itachi said, curling his lips in thoughts.

"I was just thinking the same" Sasuke added. "She looks like she couldn't even kill a zombie, and yet" he sighed.

"We're on the same page then" Tsunade nodded. "But we can't keep her as a prisoner forever. We're not gonna give our food to someone who won't be contributing to the town" she shrugged.

"What we can do is give her a task that doesn't involve weapons. We could put her with Mrs. Kushina, and not show her where the weapons are or how the shifts work" Itachi suggested.

"I like that" Tsunade agreed. "I'll talk with Nagato and the others about this" she added. "Thanks for coming" she finished.

"No problem, please let us know what you decide, I'll be on the radio during my shift" the older brother said.

"Please" Sasuke added.

"Of course, boys" she replied.

The brothers left the building, feeling quite tense.

"I'm not liking this at all" Sasuke hissed as they walked away from the building.

"Me neither" his brother replied. "But there's not much we can do for now, except keeping an eye on her" he sighed.

Sasuke exhaled a big frustrated sigh and covered his face with his hands.

"Fuck this, I'm going back to Naruto's." he hissed while walking away, waving goodbye to his brother.

"Hey" he called out, Sasuke turned around, his brother had an actual smile on his face.

"What?"

"I'm really happy you're such good friends now" he said, Sasuke snorted.

"There wasn't much I could do about it." Sasuke sighed shrugging, showing a light and almost undetectable smile.

Itachi saw it and his smile got wider.

"True" he said. "See you in the morning, Sasuke." he said goodbye with a hand gesture, Sasuke returned it and they parted ways.

 **June 14** **h** **, 7:00pm / Naruto and Sasuke logbook**

"Hey, usuratonkachi." he called to Naruto moving his shoulder slightly, who was completely asleep on the bench.

It was useless though. He sighed.

"NARUTO!" he screamed really close to his face, the man jumped immediately and stood up panting.

"DANGER!" he screamed panting, but soon realized he was no longer asleep and looked to his side. Sasuke was laughing his ass off. "WHY DID YOU HAD TO WAKE ME UP LIKE THAT, DAMMIT?!" he complained frowning.

"Because it's fun" he replied with a big smile.

Naruto pouted and sat back on the bench, Sasuke followed him.

"Sorry" he said smiling.

"Asshole" he snorted. "It's always nice to see you smile, though, even if it's at my expenses." he sighed with a soft smile, Sasuke turned to him curling his eyebrows.

"Excuse me?" Sasuke asked leaning away from the blonde, and even before Naruto could speak he talked again. "I hope you're not falling for me, Uzumaki Naruto" he snorted with a smirk.

Naruto let out a loud laugh. "You wish!"

Sasuke looked unamused by the joke.

"What I meant was…" he started. "You were so serious the first weeks, I'm just glad you're finally comfortable." Naruto explained himself, Sasuke lowered his eyebrows.

"Yeah, I guess this place has grown on me" Sasuke sighed, looking up to the sky. "As well as you…" he was going to keep on but Naruto interrupted with a grin.

"Look who's falling for who now" he smirked, Sasuke frowned.

"As well as you and Sakura, usuratonkachi." he finished his sentence with a bad-tempered tone.

Naruto laughed. "Sorry, sorry"

"Would you fall for me, though?" Naruto asked suddenly, with the same grin.

"Come again?" Sasuke asked, again, curling his eyebrows.

"I mean, am I your type? Or, what's your type?" Naruto asked like it was the most normal thing in the world.

"What the hell is this all of a sudden?" he asked puzzled.

"I don't know, just curious!" Naruto replied with the same grin on his face.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "That just means you're not gonna stop talking about it until I say it, am I right?" he sighed.

"Exactly!"

"Fine" he sighed again. "I don't have a type, okay?" he replied.

"Come on, everyone has a type!" Naruto complained.

"I've only felt attracted to people because their personality actually interested me. It's really hard for me to feel only physical attraction" Sasuke explained, shrugging. It still amazed him how comfortable he was talking about this subjects with Naruto. How the hell did the blonde do that?

"I see" said Naruto, thoughtful. "Okay, makes sense I guess" he said finally, nodding.

"What about you?" Sasuke asked, since Naruto had been all nosy, he could be too.

"My type?"

Sasuke nodded.

Naruto blushed a little.

"You got me…" Naruto laughed, Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "I also don't have a type per se but, I do have some prefered features, so to speak." he explained shrugging and holding a smile, Sasuke was puzzled. "Let's see…" he began, looking to the sky. "Dark hair, dark eyes are nice, not too many muscles, nice smile...and...deep...voice." Naruto had started excited but ended almost in a whisper. His smile went away as he realized something, they both did.

'Holy shit...I think I just described Sasuke…'

'Did he just described...me?'

None of them said nothing after that, Naruto was blushing as hell and Sasuke was in partial shock.

'Fuck, I have to say something. Say something Naruto. But what the hell do you say in a moment like this?!' he screamed in his thoughts.

Sasuke was still in shock, wondering if Naruto had for real described many of his features or he was just crazy. Meanwhile, he dared to look at Naruto from the corner of his eyes and saw how the blonde was all blushed.

He had to take this opportunity to ease the mood.

"So...me then?" Sasuke asked pulling off a grin. Deepening his voice a bit more on purpose.

Naruto turned at him pouting and still blushed. Sasuke looked back with the same smirk, Naruto looked away immediately.

"You're an asshole" the blonde muttered and stayed silent for a few seconds, but saw no escape to this. "I won't deny it, though…" he began, Sasuke's expression changed completely.

'No way in hell' he thought.

"You _are_ my type" Naruto confessed crossing his arms, still not looking back at Sasuke. The other's eyes widened. "Too bad your buttface ruins it completely." he added quickly turning towards Sasuke with a grin, he jumped with a frown.

"Really funny, dumbass" Sasuke muttered.

Naruto smiled widely and laughed playfully.

"You're so annoying, usuratonkachi" he sighed with a soft smile.

"You like me this way" Naruto laughed.

"Fine, let's say I do" Sasuke snorted.

"Almost forgot!" Naruto gasped suddenly. "What did Tsunade wanted with you two?" he asked.

"Oh…right" Sasuke gasped as well, Naruto had actually made him forget all about that. "Turns out a woman arrived earlier today. She escaped from the same place we did" he began explaining, Naruto's eyes widened. "Tsunade's keeping her under vigilance for now, she wanted to see if we could recognize her"

"And?" Naruto asked.

"Nothing" he replied, Naruto sighed just like him.

"What are they planning to do with her, then? I mean...it could be a trap or something" Naruto asked nervous, Sasuke shrugged.

"Itachi suggested to put her under your mother's supervision, no weapons or vital supplies. Nor we gonna tell her where they are either. Tsunade was gonna speak to Nagato and the others about it" Sasuke replied.

"Fuck" Naruto sighed in shock.

"Yeah, let's just hope we're wrong" Sasuke sighed.

Naruto gave a big sigh.

"Shouldn't have asked" he let out.

"What do you mean?" Sasuke asked.

"I was such in a good mood and this just ruined it" Naruto complained.

Sasuke turned to his friend with an amused smile, but took it back to the front right away.

"Me too"

Suddenly a voice called their attention.

"Naruto, Sasuke." Naruto's mother was waving at them as she approached the porch, holding a big bucket with potatoes in it.

"Mom!"

"Good evening, Mrs. Kushina" Sasuke greeted.

The woman snorted.

"Don't need to be so formal with me, boy" she laughed. "Now, do any of you want to help me with this?" she asked with a smile, Naruto jumped from his seat.

"Sure!" he replied as he took the big bucket on his arms.

"Thanks, that was killing me" she sighed. "Now, are you gonna stay for dinner, Sasuke?"

That question had caught Sasuke off guard, didn't know what to say for a few seconds.

"Stay for dinner?" he asked, baffled.

"Sure, you're already here and Naruto's friends are always welcome with us" she said with a huge grin. "What do you say?"

It was weird, he indeed was considering Naruto as a close friend, but to have other people acknowledging it was strange. Even so, the request did sound interesting, and he couldn't deny he was hungry.

"Sure, I'll stay" he replied at last with a slight smile. Thinking that Naruto had definitely got his looks from his mother, they had the same grin.

Naruto widened his eyes in surprise, a part of him was expecting him to refuse the invitation. He couldn't avoid to smile.

"Awesome!" he said with a big smile.

A few minutes later even Minato had arrived and they were all in the kitchen helping with the stew for dinner. Sasuke felt a bit out of place, he was peeling the potatoes with Naruto on the living room, while Minato and Kushina prepared the broth and vegetables.

"Are you okay there?" Naruto whispered to him with a raised eyebrow.

He hadn't noticed he was just looking at the void while peeling the potatoes.

"Yeah, sorry" he said shaking his head and looking at the potatoes.

"Sure?"

"Yeah, it's just…" he began, not really knowing what was making him feel uneasy.

That was a lie, though, he knew why he was feeling like that. But for a moment he doubted if telling Naruto or not.

'Oh, what the heck…' he sighed to himself.

"It's just that I hadn't done something like this since before all this mess" he replied without looking at Naruto.

"Cooking?" he asked.

Sasuke snorted. "Cooking with a family"

Naruto looked at Sasuke with sympathy, he was just thinking about his family. But wanting to defuse the tension a little bit, he wanted to tease around a little. Still not knowing why that was so much fun to him.

"Some boyfriend's family maybe?" he asked with a grin, Sasuke finally lift his look to him frowning.

"Mine, dumbass" he hissed, Naruto chuckled.

"Just teasing" Naruto sighed.

"I did use to do this at my boyfriend's house too, though" Sasuke said suddenly, trying to hide a smile, he too could tease.

"So you did had a boyfriend!" the blonde exclaimed with triumph.

"Why is that so surprising?" Sasuke asked raising an eyebrow.

"What would had actually surprised me is that you hadn't" he said shrugging.

'Those looks can't go around unnoticed' Naruto thought to himself, but he wasn't going to let that slip.

"Very funny" Sasuke sighed.

"So, what was his name?" Naruto asked, kinda curious what kind of person would be of interest to his friend.

"Suigetsu" Sasuke replied, concentrating on the potato in his hand. "He was my roommate in college"

"Nice college years, I imagine" the blonde laughed with playful smile.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "We were only together for the last year and a half, he hadn't quite accepted his sexuality, so it was hard" he explained, puzzled at why it was so easy to open to Naruto about this things. "The moment we left college we sorta went on separate ways" he added.

"That sucks" Naruto sighed.

"I guess, but I think we just weren't that in love with each other to give up on dreams or plans for the future" Sasuke explained, shrugging, he really didn't hold a grudge or sad feelings towards him. "It was fun and nice while it lasted, we ended it on good terms. He was fun to hang out with, even before we started dating" he added.

"And the sex?" Naruto asked with a big grin, that had made Sasuke finally lift his head up to him with a frown. "Oh, come on, like hell I'm gonna believe you didn't have sex being roommates" he added snorting.

Sasuke sighed. "Of course we had sex but that's not of your goddamn business, usuratonkachi" he hissed with the same frown.

Naruto was going to complain but his mother came to save Sasuke's ass.

"Boys, you done?" she asked coming into the living room.

When they looked into the bowl, they had indeed finished without noticing.

"Yes!" Naruto replied and took the bowl, following his mother to the kitchen.

They finished cooking and sat to eat. It wasn't a particular dinner, nobody said much, Kushina was talking about her day and Minato as well. The subject of Kaguya didn't come up, maybe Minato didn't want to disrupt the actually nice evening they were having.

After finishing eating and washing the dishes Minato and Kushina said goodbye and went upstairs to sleep, leaving Naruto and Sasuke in the living room.

The two of them were lying on the big couch in the room, still amazingly full from dinner.

"I hadn't been this full in a long time" Naruto sighed with a smile.

Sasuke just snorted.

"What should we do now?" Naruto asked, staring at the ceiling just like Sasuke.

"Go home and sleep? It's almost 10" Sasuke sighed.

"How about a sleepover then?" Naruto proposed with a smile, sitting up and looking at Sasuke.

"What are you?, five?" Sasuke asked raising an eyebrow.

"I get bored…" Naruto pouted. "And I'm not that sleepy" he sighed, letting himself fall into the couch again.

'Why the hell am I thinking of staying here? Why can't I just leave? Since when do I do fucking sleepovers?' Sasuke asked himself, almost furious. Why was he so comfortable with this guy, what made him unable to resist to his stupid smile. Could he be having a crush? No, it didn't quite feel like one. But at the same time he wasn't able to stop looking at him when he smiled. Such a bright and warm personality, he couldn't ignore it.

'Damn you, dumbass' he cursed in his thoughts.

"Fine, usuratonkachi, I'll stay over" he agreed at last and Naruto smiled blissfully.

They went upstairs to Naruto's room, the blonde said they could hang out there and play cards. Sasuke still couldn't believe he was actually doing that, it felt weird, but somewhat comfortable at the same time.

Naruto, on the other hand, was anxious, happy, but anxious. He knew that he was somehow starting to like Sasuke too much, but wasn't so sure himself, he needed more time with him, he needed to figure his shit out.

"There, flush, I win" Sasuke said with a grin, tossing his hand on the bed, where they were playing, Naruto sighed with defeat.

"This is bullshit, how the fuck do you keep winning?!" he complained throwing his cards in the air with discontempt.

"I did warn you, you know?" Sasuke shrugged.

"Good thing we're not using money, I'd be broke" Naruto sighed.

Sasuke snorted with a smile and started to collect the card to start shuffling again.

"You haven't play that much, huh?" Sasuke joked with a grin.

Naruto frowned. "I have!" he complained. "Mostly strip poker, though, nothing serious at all" sighed with a smile. Somewhat ashamed.

"I don't even wanna know" Sasuke sighed after rolling his eyes.

"Asshole" the blonde hissed. "It's actually fun, you know?" he added crossing his arms.

Sasuke snorted.

"Doubt it"

"You can't say that without trying!" Naruto said with a grin.

"I'm not trying" Sasuke rushed shrugging.

"Come on! It's a bonding experience!" Naruto laughed loudly.

Sasuke kept his arms crossed, sighing.

"Not happening"

Naruto pouted.

And suddenly, as soon as Sasuke put his eyes on Naruto's he felt quick goosebumps all throughout his body, and even a slight twitch near his groin.

'THE FUCK WAS THAT?' he screamed to himself taking his eyes off Naruto and focusing on shuffling cards.

"Everything okay?" Naruto asked after seeing Sasuke moving so quickly.

"Of course" he answered without taking his eyes off the cards. "I think I wanna go to sleep, though"

"If you want, sure" Naruto shrugged, Sasuke was acting a little bit weird for him, but he knew that asking wasn't the answer at the moment.

"Where's the guest room?" Sasuke asked.

"Um…there's not really a guest room anymore" the blonde replied scratching his back neck.

Sasuke frowned and finally looked at Naruto.

"So where will I sleep?" Sasuke asked.

"Well, I have an extra bed right below this one" Naruto replied with a smile, patting the bed. "We just pull it out and that's it"

Sasuke sighed. "Fine"

They stood up and Naruto kneeled at the left side of the bed and pulled a mattress.

"There!" He said while going to his closet and taking an extra pillow and cover. "And here" he added throwing them at Sasuke, who caught them perfectly.

"Thanks" he said putting them on the bed.

"You don't mind if I sleep on undies, do you?" Naruto asked suddenly with a shy smile.

Sasuke's heart skipped a beat.

"No, at all, I sleep shirtless anyway" he replied shrugging, again, avoiding looking at Naruto.

'What the fuck is wrong with you, asshole?' Sasuke asked himself furious, he didn't understand why the sudden chills and anxiety.

Unfortunately, that was a lie.

He knew what it could mean, but he repeated again and again that it was impossible. He couldn't, not in a thousand years, be even slightly attracted to Naruto.

'Not a fucking chance' he cursed to himself.

"Are you okay there, asshole?"

Naruto was sitting on his bed, already with nothing on but his boxers, looking at Sasuke with curled eyebrows.

Sasuke looked back.

"Why you ask?"

"Don't know, you were spacing out" he replied shrugging.

"It's the Kaguya thing" Sasuke lied, taking his shirt off. "Ah, shit" he said suddenly, a part of his shirt had got caught on the harness.

"You need help?" Naruto asked, getting closer to Sasuke.

'Damn it' he cursed in his thoughts.

"Yeah" he replied with a whisper.

Naruto sighed with a slight smile, he was relieved every time Sasuke agreed to have help.

He sat on the border of his bed, right next to Sasuke. His shirt appeared to be stuck under one of the straps, so Naruto just lift it up.

"There, pull" he said so Sasuke could finish taking the piece of cloth off.

"Finally" he sighed shaking his head to get his hair back in shape.

The blonde just smiled going back to his spot on his bed.

Sasuke took the harness and the sleeve off and threw his head on the pillow, looking at the ceiling.

Suddenly, Naruto's face was looking down to him, almost on top of his face.

"Let me guess" Sasuke began. "You're still not sleepy" he said rolling his eyes.

"No, I am sleepy" the blonde replied, shrugging.

"Then what the fuck?" Sasuke frowned.

"Nothing" Naruto smiled and just like Sasuke did, he threw his head on the pillow and looked at the ceiling.

Sasuke rolled his eyes, and although he tried to fight the urge to stand up and clarify the situation, that was a battle he could not win.

He stood up with a sigh and looked at a smiling Naruto looking at the ceiling.

"Again, usuratonkachi" he began. "What the fuck?" he asked with the same frown.

Naruto's eyes moved towards him, but not his face. His smile grew bigger, closing his eyes.

"I told you, you _are_ my type" Naruto laughed with a mischiveous smile.

'This motherfucker' Sasuke sighed in his mind, he knew he was just fucking with him.

"Very funny, usuratonkachi" he snorted and went back to the pillow, covering himself with the covers.

Naruto laughed louder. "Sorry, sorry, just joking"

"You better" Sasuke sighed in response.

'Relax, Naruto, don't go jumping into conclusions yet' the blonde laughed to himself. But he couldn't ignore the fact that back there all he wanted to do was give him a kiss. Nevertheless, maybe it was just the fact of having talked about this whole "type" deal, so he still had no definite answer to if he was starting to like him or not.

'I'll let it flow, I'll just...let it flow' he repeated himself, rolling to his right side to finally sleep.

'Just ignore it' Sasuke thought, finally falling asleep.

 **Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

 **May 15** **th** **, 7:00 am / Sasuke logbook**

"See you for practice and lunch?" Naruto asked as Sasuke left his house.

"You'll annoy the shit out of me it I don't" he replied shrugging with his hand in his pockets, Naruto laughed.

"You do know me"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Bye, usuratonkachi"

Naruto waved goodbye with a salute.

Sasuke walked to his house to have a shower and prepare for practice. Upon arrival he heard Itachi's voice coming from upstairs.

"There you are!" Itachi almost screamed as he rushed to the entrance.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

"I already have too much on my plate, don't make me get home to not finding you here" he sighed "Please."

"Sorry" Sasuke shrugged, he understood his brother concern, though.

"Where were you anyway?" Itachi asked, crossing his arms.

"I can tell you're worried, okay? Enough" Sasuke sighed.

"Where were you?" his brother asked again, raising his eyebrows.

Sasuke pouted. "I…" he began. "I was at Naruto's, okay?" he answered back, looking away from his brother and going upstairs.

"Were you having a sleepover or...?"

Sasuke froze and turned back, squinting.

"A ' _sleepover'_?" Itachi asked with a more playful smile, making quotation marks with his hands.

Sasuke frowned immediately. But weird enough his heart had skipped a beat again.

"It was just a sleepover, you dickhead"

Itachi laughed.

"You know I'm just screwing with you" he shrugged with a smile on his face.

"Uncalled for, Itachi" Sasuke sighed.

His brother just laughed and went with him upstairs to finally get some sleep.

Sasuke went into the shower and let the water, although a bit cold, run through his hair and back for a while as he let himself in wonderous thoughts. And suddenly, remembering that instant he looked up to Naruto's eyes.

'You're being ridiculous' he sighed to himself. 'I was just anxious, I wasn't expecting to end up in a fucking sleepover after that dumbass just started messing around with the whole _type_ shit' he continued, still feeling the warm water on his back. 'It was nothing, just weird shit' he repeated about three times in his head.

He was just gonna ignore it.

That was it.

After finally finishing his shower, he dressed up and left home.

"Sasuke!" he heard the voice of Naruto's mother calling him as he was closing the door.

As soon as he turned to her, he noticed Kaguya was carrying some stuff behind her. "And don't you dear calling me mrs." she grinned before he could speak.

He cleared his throat. "Morning, Kushina"

She sighed in relief.

"Morning" she replied.

"Morning" Kaguya whispered.

Sasuke just made a quick vow with his head in reply.

"I see you got help" Sasuke said, looking at Kushina.

"I did! And I'm glad." she replied with a smile.

"I'm grateful" Kaguya whispered.

'You better be' Sasuke thought to himself.

"You going to practice?" Kushina asked.

"Yeah"

"Could I…"

Sasuke was almost walking away when Kaguya whispered again.

Sasuke didn't say anything, just turned towards her and waited for her to continue.

"Could I ask what happened?" she asked, looking quickly at Sasuke's stump.

Sasuke took a quick look as well, thinking this might be a good way to test if she was one of those nutjobs.

"A fucking zombie" he replied, he knew they didn't call them zombies. Nevertheless, she looked surprised, nothing else Sasuke could notice. "The infection had to be stopped from spreading" he shrugged.

One of her hands' fingers twitched a little.

"I'm sorry to hear that" she said.

Sasuke didn't reply.

"Well, Kaguya, we should get going" Kushina said suddenly, seeing that there was a little tension between them. She started walking in the direction they were originally going, Kaguya followed. "See you around, Sasuke" Kushina waved.

"Same, and thanks" he sighed, she replied with a wink and walked away.

Sasuke looked at them walking away, thinking if his gut feeling might be right or wrong. He shook his head after a few seconds and began his way to practice.

'There must be a way to prove if I'm right…'

"Hey, asshole!" Naruto's voice called him ahead, he looked up.

The blonde had an arm lift up and a smile in his face.

He sighed.

"Hey"

Sasuke walked to the blonde and went together to practice with Nagato. Wishing he could get distracted from his thoughts for a while.


End file.
